Four-day partial shutdown ends; five FY2026 bills enacted

On 3 February 2026 the U.S. House of Representatives concurred in the Senate amendment to the FY2026 funding package by a vote of 217-214, ending a four-day partial funding lapse that began at 11:59 p.m. eastern standard time on 30 January 2026 when Division A of the 12 November 2025 continuing resolution expired.¹ The package combines a short-term continuing resolution for the Department of Homeland Security through 13 February 2026 with five conferenced full-year FY2026 appropriations bills — Defense; Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies; Financial Services and General Government; State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs; and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies.² The Senate invoked cloture and passed the package by 71-29 on 30 January 2026.³ The lapse exposed six of the twelve regular FY2026 appropriations bills’ agencies (Defense; DHS; Labor-HHS-Ed; Financial Services and General Government; State-Foreign Operations; T-HUD); the six bills already enacted on 12 November 2025 (MilCon-VA, Agriculture-FDA, Legislative Branch) and 23 January 2026 (CJS, Energy-Water, Interior) were not exposed.⁴

1. Each enacted regular appropriations bill displaces the underlying continuing-resolution authority for the departments and accounts it covers; the Antideficiency Act, 31 U.S.C. §§ 1341 and 1342, bars obligations in advance or in excess of available appropriations, with § 1342 “excepted” personnel performing work for the protection of life or property continuing to work without pay during the lapse.⁵ Activities funded outside annual appropriations (mandatory programmes such as Social Security benefit payments; the Postal Service) are “exempt” and operated throughout. The Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, Pub. L. 116-1, codified at 31 U.S.C. § 1341 note, provides retroactive pay to furloughed and excepted federal employees “at the employee’s standard rate of pay, at the earliest date possible after the lapse in appropriations ends”; federal contractors have no equivalent statutory entitlement.⁶

2. The five-bill enactment brings FY2026 regular appropriations to 11 of 12 enacted, with only the DHS bill remaining on a short-term CR expiring 13 February 2026.² The four-day lapse limits the cumulative GDP and contractor- payment impact relative to the 1 October-12 November 2025 43-day shutdown that exposed all twelve bills’ agencies.⁷

3. The next funding cliff exposes a single bill (DHS); the substantive dispute centres on immigration-enforcement policy riders attached to the DHS bill, including provisions on ICE funding and detention capacity.⁸