With the U.S. Congress facing a federal budget deadline and locked in a head-on clash over the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) budget, the likelihood of a partial government shutdown resuming is rising.
According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 26th (local time), concerns about a shutdown at many federal agencies are becoming reality as Senate Democrats have firmed up their position that they cannot cooperate on passing an appropriations package. Appropriations bills are laws that allocate federal funds to specific departments, agencies, and programs, and 12 bills must pass for the 2026 fiscal year.
Democrats are reported to have expressed opposition to a "comprehensive budget package" bundling six of the 12 appropriations bills that have not yet been processed. If the six bills pass, the federal government would secure funding through the end of September, totaling about $1.3 trillion (1,881 trillion won). Of that, the DHS budget totals $64.4 billion, allocating $18.3 billion to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and $10 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Earlier, the Republican-led House sent the comprehensive budget package to the Senate last week. The Senate also has a Republican majority with 53 seats, but 60 votes are needed to pass the bills, requiring Democratic cooperation. Senate Democrats were initially understood to share the view that the budget should be processed by the Jan. 31 deadline.
However, after an incident on the 24th in which a civilian man was killed by gunfire from an immigration enforcement officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, some Senate Democrats abruptly shifted their stance. ▲ Catherine Cortez Masto (Nevada) ▲ Mark Warner (Virginia) ▲ Brian Schatz (Hawaii) and others voiced opposition after the incident. Some of them had been favorable to passing the package, but shifted their position after raising concerns about the DHS budget bill.
Democrats argue that the DHS budget should be separated from the overall package, that the five other appropriations bills should be processed first, and that negotiations on DHS should proceed separately. They say the bill must include measures that ▲ place limits on immigration enforcement ▲ strengthen congressional oversight of DHS operations overall ▲ and set explicit limits on deploying federal officers to places like Minneapolis, and they are reportedly willing to risk a shutdown to push through the amendments.
Republicans have put forward keeping the original bill as their official position, but some lawmakers are seen as leaving room to find a compromise through last-minute talks. Even if the Senate reaches an agreement and passes the budget, it must go through another vote in the House, and if that process is delayed, it could become effectively impossible to meet the deadline.
If a partial shutdown materializes, agencies with finalized budgets such as the Ministry of Justice, the Commerce Department, the Agriculture Department, the Interior Department, and the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs (MPVA) would operate normally, while the Department of Homeland Security and the Ministry of National Defense are expected to halt operations except for essential functions. Civil servants providing core services such as air traffic control, border security, and law enforcement would work without pay, while the rest would be furloughed and receive back pay when the shutdown ends.
With tax filing season approaching, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is also said to be facing uncertainty in its operations. The IRS has typically maintained maximum staffing during filing season, but it has not yet disclosed a specific operating plan in the event of a shutdown. However, the WSJ analyzed that because additional resources secured under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) remain, the IRS is unlikely to completely halt operations even if its annual appropriations are cut off.