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Brief US Government Shutdown Looks Inevitable Despite Deal
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By Reuters
Published 1 hour ago on
January 30, 2026

Birds fly past the U.S. Capitol building dome in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 4, 2026. (Reuters File)

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A short-lived U.S. government shutdown looked inevitable beginning after midnight on Friday despite plans in the Senate to vote on a deal that would keep a wide swath of the government running.

The deal would fund government operations from the military to health programs. But it would also need to be approved by the House of Representatives, which is not expected to take up the measure until Monday at the earliest.

That means a brief shutdown is likely.

Deal Reached, Deadline Looming

Senate Democrats and President Donald Trump reached a deal on Thursday that would allow Congress to ensure government operations are not interrupted while they negotiate new limits on Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Thursday it would be difficult to get lawmakers back to Washington to vote before the midnight deadline.

Any shutdown that results might be brief. Lawmakers from both parties have been working to ensure the debate over immigration enforcement does not disrupt other government operations. This is a marked contrast from last fall, when Republicans and Democrats dug into their positions in a dispute over healthcare, prompting a shutdown that lasted a record 43 days and cost the U.S. economy an estimated $11 billion.

The deal would separate funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from the broader funding package, allowing lawmakers to approve spending for agencies like the Pentagon and the Department of Labor while they consider new restrictions on federal immigration agents.

Senate Democrats, angered by the shooting of a second U.S. citizen by immigration agents in Minneapolis last weekend, had threatened to hold up the funding package in an effort to force Trump to rein in DHS, which oversees federal immigration enforcement.

Democrats want to end roving patrols, require agents to wear body cameras and prohibit them from wearing face masks. They also want to require immigration agents to get a search warrant from a judge, rather than from their own officials. Republicans say they are open to some of those ideas.

DHS funding would be extended for two weeks, giving negotiators time to reach an agreement on immigration tactics.

The shooting death of nurse Alex Pretti by federal agents on Saturday spurred widespread public outrage, prompting the Trump administration to de-escalate operations in the region. Pretti’s death was the second this month of a U.S. citizen with no criminal record involving immigration law enforcement agents.

(Reporting by David Morgan, Richard Cowan and Nolan D. McCaskill; Editing by Andy Sullivan, Chizu Nomiyama and Alistair Bell)

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