ab ovo

Second 2026 federal shutdown begins on DHS lapse

14 February 2026 · written 8 June 2026

At 12:01 a.m. eastern standard time on 14 February 2026 the Department of Homeland Security entered a funding lapse after the short-term continuing resolution for DHS — enacted in the 3 February 2026 package and expiring 13 February — lapsed without successor appropriations.1 On 12 February 2026 the Senate failed to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to a successor short-term continuing resolution for DHS by a vote of 52-47, short of the 60-vote threshold; both chambers began a scheduled one-week recess.2 The lapse affects DHS components including U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Transportation Security Administration, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (except fee-funded operations), the Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the United States Secret Service, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers, and the Science and Technology Directorate, subject to component-specific excepted-personnel determinations under the DHS shutdown contingency plan.3

  1. Single-bill funding lapses affect only the agencies funded by the lapsed appropriations; the remainder of the federal government continues to operate under the eleven enacted FY2026 regular appropriations bills (the six enacted before the 30 January cliff and the five enacted on 3 February 2026).4 The bounded scope of this lapse contrasts with the 43-day, all-twelve-bill funding lapse from 1 October to 12 November 2025.5

  2. Under 31 U.S.C. § 1342, DHS retains “excepted” personnel performing work for the protection of life or property — typically including CBP officers at ports of entry, ICE enforcement officers, TSA screeners, and Coast Guard operational personnel; activities funded outside annual appropriations remain “exempt” (USCIS Premium Processing and other USCIS fee accounts under 8 U.S.C. § 1356, and certain TSA fee-funded activities).67 The Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, Pub. L. 116-1, guarantees retroactive pay to furloughed and excepted federal employees once the lapse ends; federal contractors have no equivalent statutory entitlement.8

  3. The substantive dispute centres on immigration-enforcement policy riders attached to the DHS bill, including provisions on ICE funding and detention capacity; Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s December 2025 commitment to a standalone Senate vote on extension of the enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits — deferred from the November 2025 shutdown-ending package — remains pending.910

Footnotes

  1. Short-term DHS continuing-resolution division of the 3 February 2026 FY2026 funding package (H.R. 7148, Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026), expiring 13 February 2026. See Four-day partial shutdown ends; five FY2026 bills enacted. ↩

  2. U.S. Senate, cloture vote of 12 February 2026 on the House-passed DHS continuing-resolution vehicle (cloture filed 10 February by Majority Leader Thune; failed 52-47, 60 required). https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/vote_menu_119_2.htm ↩

  3. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, FY2026 shutdown contingency plan, designating excepted personnel by component. The White House page cited here returns 404 and no successor was found by site search on 17 September 2026; the Wayback Machine was rate-limiting throughout and could not confirm an archived copy either way. The dead link is removed rather than redirected to a section index. Tracked at debt whitehouse-june-2025-readouts. ↩

  4. Eleven of twelve FY2026 regular appropriations bills enacted: MilCon-VA, Agriculture-FDA, Legislative Branch (12 November 2025); Commerce-Justice-Science, Energy-Water Development, Interior-Environment (23 January 2026); Defense, Labor-HHS-Education, Financial Services and General Government, State-Foreign Operations, T-HUD (3 February 2026). See prior posts. ↩

  5. 1 October-12 November 2025 funding lapse of 43 days, exposing all twelve regular FY2026 appropriations bills’ agencies. See Longest US government shutdown ends after 43 days. ↩

  6. Antideficiency Act, 31 U.S.C. § 1341 (prohibition on obligations in advance or in excess of appropriations) and § 1342 (excepted activities). https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title31-section1341&edition=prelim ↩

  7. Office of Management and Budget, Circular A-11 § 124, “Agency Operations in the Absence of Appropriations.” https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/s124.pdf ↩

  8. Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, Pub. L. 116-1, 133 Stat. 3, codified at 31 U.S.C. § 1341 note. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-116publ1/pdf/PLAW-116publ1.pdf ↩

  9. Congressional Record floor statements and committee press releases on the DHS appropriations dispute, February 2026 (immigration-enforcement riders including ICE funding and detention-capacity provisions). ↩

  10. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) committed in November 2025 to a standalone Senate vote in December 2025 on extension of the enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits (§ 36B of the Internal Revenue Code, as extended by the Inflation Reduction Act). See Longest US government shutdown ends after 43 days. ↩

congressfiscalappropriationsshutdownimmigration