The U.S. federal budget bill passed the House on the 3rd (local time), and the partial shutdown of the federal government is expected to end soon.
According to Reuters and other outlets, the U.S. House on this day approved, 217-214, the federal budget package that the Senate amended and passed on the 30th of last month. The shutdown will end once President Donald Trump signs the budget bill sent from Congress.
The $1.2 trillion (about 1,741 trillion won) budget bill passed that day funds the Department of Defense, Department of Labor, Department of the Treasury, Department of Health and Human Services, Ministry of Education, and Department of State through Sept. 30, when the 2026 fiscal year ends, while temporarily allocating the Department of Homeland Security's budget only through Feb. 13.
The House currently has the ruling Republicans holding 218 seats and Democrats 214, but Republicans saw more defections. According to the U.S. online outlet Axios, 21 hard-line Republican lawmakers broke ranks in protest that the Department of Homeland Security's annual budget was not secured, and the same number of Democratic lawmakers voted in favor.
The bill passed the Senate on the 30th of last month, but it was not processed due to the House recess, leaving the federal government in a partial shutdown since the 31st of last month. If the bill approved by the Senate is changed in the House, it must go to another vote in the Senate.
Democrats, opposing the Trump administration's hard-line immigration enforcement, demanded that the budget for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration enforcement, be handled separately. In response, President Trump reached a compromise with Democrats to process the annual budgets for the remaining departments together with a two-week stopgap for the Department of Homeland Security.
To secure the Department of Homeland Security's budget beyond the 13th, Republicans and Democrats must reach an agreement on a reform plan for the department. If the two parties fail to agree on a reform plan, the Department of Homeland Security will enter a shutdown starting on the 14th.