Partial Government Shutdown After Late Changes to DHS Funding Levels

On the evening of Friday, January 30, the federal government partially shut down. The shutdown will likely be resolved by this week. Funding for youth homelessness programs is expected to pass at that time.

To end the month-long shutdown in October-November of last year, Congress passed short-term funding bills (“continuing resolution”) that extended their final deadline to finish Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 funding to January 30. FY 2026 began on October 1, 2025, and ends on September 30, 2026.

On January 20, the House released their proposed funding levels for agencies, including the Departments of Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and, notably, Homeland Security (DHS). These bills already had approval from bipartisan House and Senate appropriators and were on track to pass the rest of Congress before January 30.

That weekend, immigration enforcement officers killed a second person in Minnesota as part of increased violence in the state and across the country. In response, Democrats decided they can no longer support the proposed funding for DHS as part of the larger FY 2026 funding package.

On January 30, the Senate passed a new proposal to:

• Fund DHS for two weeks to give Congress time to negotiate DHS’ final FY 2026 spending levels and the new restrictions on DHS that Democrats want.
• Pass the final FY 2026 funding bills for all the other federal agencies included in this package, including Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Education.

The House still needs to vote to approve this new measure. However, they were on recess last week and have only returned today (Monday, February 2). House leadership believes they will be able to vote on the new proposal tomorrow (Tuesday, February 3).

The new proposal, which funds DHS for two weeks and all the other agencies for the rest of FY 2026, will likely pass sometime this week. Then Congress will face tough negotiations on the final DHS bill, including over how much to fund the controversial agency and what new restrictions and oversight they will require. If they can’t pass a final DHS bill by the end of the two-week deadline, then DHS could temporarily shut down (the rest of the government will remain open).

FY 2026 funding for youth homelessness programs is part of the package that is expected to pass as-is. There is level or slightly increased funding for most programs that impact youth homelessness and a number of good new provisions. Read more here.

If you receive federal funding, your program officers may be on furlough during the shutdown. However, this shutdown is expected to end sometime this week.

To stay up-to-date on all things youth homelessness, join our listerv.