The 2025 federal government shutdown occurred at the beginning of the fiscal year. It lasted until November 12, when a continuing resolution and three of the twelve full appropriations bills were enacted. In January 2026, three additional bills were enacted, and 5 more were enacted on February 3, 2026. only the DHS is running under a continuing resolution.
Background
The 2024 United States elections resulted in the Republican Party having control in all three legislative chambers, the House (220–215), the Senate (53–47), and the presidency. However, because appropriation legislation can still be fillibustered in the Senate, 60 votes are required to pass government funding in that body.
In 2025, for the first time since 2013, Congress funded the government through a full-year continuing resolution in March 2025.[1] The passage of the legislation was controversial among some Democrats, because a small number Democrats in the Senate voted with Republicans to pass the continuing resolution and avert a government shutdown.
Early appropriations proposals
During the summer of 2025, House Republicans, passed three partisan spending bills, mostly along party lines.[2] Due to disagreements with the Senate over spending levels, the House voted to conference three spending bills with the Senate.[3] Without a continuing resolution, government funding expired after midnight on October 1, 2025, triggering a government shutdown.[4] The shutdown ended on November 12 with the enactment of a continuing resolution, extending funding through January 30, 2026.[5]
Continuing resolution proposals
On September 16, 2025, House Republicans unveiled a continuing resolution to keep the government funded under current spending levels until November 21. Republicans called the proposal a clean continuing resolution, lacking partisan policy riders. The resolution also includes $30 million for lawmaker security.[6] Democrats criticized the proposal because it lacked extensions for Affordable Care Act tax credits.[7] The Republican bill passed the House on September 19 in a 217–212 vote. Fiscal conservative Republicans Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Victoria Spartz of Indiana voted against the bill. Moderate DemocratJared Golden of Maine voted for it.[8] Moderate Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez missed the vote, but later said she supported the bill.[9]
On September 17, House and Senate Democrats unveiled a separate continuing resolution to keep the government funded until October 31. The Democratic proposal would permanently extends Affordable Care Act tax credits, roll back cuts to Medicaid that had been implemented in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, restore funding cut in the Rescissions Act of 2025, and include $320 million for lawmaker security.[10]
On September 18, the Senate agreed by unanimous consent to take up both the Democratic and Republican proposals, in that order, with three-fifths required to pass.[11] The Democratic proposal failed in a 47–45 vote along party-lines on September 19.[12][13] Later that day, the Republican bill failed to pass in the Senate in a 44–48 vote.[12] Two Republicans, Fiscal Conservative Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky and Moderate RepublicanLisa Murkowski of Alaska, voted against the bill. Moderate Democrat John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the only Democrat to support the bill.[14]
Further negotiations
On September 20, 2025, after the two failed votes in the Senate, Moderate Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who voted against both proposals, released a framework for a continuing resolution to keep the government open until November 21, 2025. The framework calls for a one year extension of Affordable Care Act tax credits, $30 million in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to be prioritized for rural NPR stations, and funding programs cut by the Office of Management and Budget's September 2025 pocket rescission.[15][16]
Senate minority leaderChuck Schumer and House minority leaderHakeem Jeffries, both Democrats from New York, announced plans to meet with President Trump on Thursday, September 25 to negotiate a continuing resolution. However, on September 23, Trump canceled the meeting through a post on Truth Social. In the post, President Trump wrote after "reviewing the details of the unserious and ridiculous demands" from Democrats "I have decided that no meeting with their Congressional Leaders could possibly be productive."[17]
President Trump hosted a meeting with Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate majority leader John Thune, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries on Monday, September 29 to negotiate a continuing resolution. No progress was made.[19][20]
On September 30, 2025, hours before the shutdown began, the Senate voted again on the Democratic and Republican plans. The Democratic plan again failed on party lines (47 in favor, 53 against).[21] All Republicans except Paul, along with Democrats Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and John Fetterman, as well as Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, voted for the Republican plan, which thus failed 55–45. Despite receiving a majority of votes in the Senate, the Republican failed to pass because it could not overcome a 60-vote filibuster. After the votes, the Office of Management and Budget directed agencies to execute their shutdown plans.[22]
With no agreement on a continuing resolution, the federal government shut down at 12:01 a.m. EDT.[23]
On October 1, 2025, during a third vote in the Senate on Republican and Democratic plans to end the shutdown, Republican and Democratic Senators held preliminary negotiations on the Senate floor. The Senators discussed shortening the length of the Republican planned continuing resolution in order to use that time to come to a more significant agreement. No agreement was made. Both versions again failed by votes of 55–45 and 47–53, respectively.[24] Senators of both parties called the preliminary negotiation a "productive discussion."[25]
The Republican-led Senate has continued to force votes on the Republican led continuing resolution. These votes have all failed, mostly along party lines. Bucking from their parties, Democratic senators Cortez Masto and Fetterman and independent King have continued to vote for the bill. Republican senator Rand Paul has continued to vote against the bill.[26][27][28][29][30][31]
On October 6, President Trump claimed talks were underway with Democrats, which Chuck Schumer said was not true.[32][33]
November agreement
On November 9, 2025, after negotiations between Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans, a deal was revealed to end the shutdown. The agreement would include a continuing resolution that would fund the government until the end of January, and full-year appropriations bills for the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Agriculture, military construction, and the Legislative Branch.[7][34]
The full-year bills include $203.5 million to fund security for members of Congress and $852 million for US Capitol Police. In addition, the continuing resolution guarantees that federal employees who faced lay-offs during the shutdown be rehired and granted backpay. It would additionally bar the Office of Management and Budget from implementing mass layoffs of federal workers throughout the length of the continuing resolution.[7][34] The deal also guarantees a vote in the Senate to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies. The continuing resolution would need to pass both the House and the Senate, and be signed into law by the President, before the government shutdown could end.[35]
After the deal was announced, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries stated that House Democrats would not support any measure which did not guarantee an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies. Democrats do not possess the votes in the House to defeat the measure, assuming all House Republicans vote for it, in the event that it passes the Senate.[36][37]
The Senate voted 60–40 on the night of November 9 to advance the agreement.[38] Eight Senate Democrats (Durbin, King, Hassan, Shaheen, Cortez Masto, Rosen, Fetterman, and Kaine) joined all Senate Republicans but Rand Paul to advance it.[39] On November 12, the House passed the bill by a 222–209 vote.[40] President Trump signed the bill into law later that day.[41]
Also in January 2026, the House and Senate appropriations committees agreed to three additional bipartisan bills containing the remainder of the appropriations. As of late January, all three packages have been passed by the House and are awaiting action by the Senate:
These three bills were combined into one bill before being sent to the Senate[50][51] using a mechanism pursuant to H.Res.1014 by which the text of all three bills was consolidated into H.R. 7148 when the bill was engrossed before being transmitted to the Senate.
However, following the killing of Alex Pretti by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents on January 24, 2026, Democrats in the Senate announced they would no longer support the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) bill, which funds CBP.[52]
On January 29, 2026, the Senate failed to advance the government funding package in a 45–55 vote. Seven Republicans joined all Democrats in opposing the bill. Most of the Republicans voting against the bill were fiscal conservatives, including Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Rick Scott and Ashley Moody of Florida. Unlike the Democrats, these Republicans are seeking more funding cuts and are generally opposed to a new deal between Republicans and Democrats for Homeland Security funding.[53]
Later that day, a deal was announced in the Senate to separate the DHS funding bill, and pass a package containing the other five bills plus a two-week continuing resolution for DHS. Passage was briefly delayed by a hold placed by Senator Lindsey Graham, who opposed repeal of a provision allowing senators to sue over phone records collected during the Arctic Frost investigation, and the lack of full-year DHS appropriations. Graham removed the hold in return for votes on legislation to criminalize refusal of state and local officials to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, and to expand eligibility of those investigated by Jack Smith to sue the Department of Justice.[54][55] On January 30, the bill passed the Senate 71–29.[56]
After passing the Senate, Speaker of House Mike Johnson said the House would not take up the bill until Monday, February 2, 2026. As a result, Office of Management and Budget said they would begin shutdown procedures at midnight on Saturday, January 31, when funding ran out.[57] On February 3, the House passed the bill by a 217–214 vote. President Trump signed the bill into law later that day.
References
↑Bahal, Sanya; Lautz, Andrew; Fano, Arianna; Quakenbush, Caleb; Snyderman, Rachel (September 3, 2025). "What You Need to Know About Continuing Resolutions". Bipartisan Policy Center. Retrieved September 18, 2025.
↑Digital, Kaia Hubbard Politics Reporter Kaia Hubbard is a politics reporter for CBS News; Washington, based in; Hubbard, D. C. Read Full Bio Kaia; Digital, Kathryn Watson Politics Reporter Kathryn Watson is a politics reporter for CBS News; Washington, based in; Watson, D. C. Read Full Bio Kathryn; CBSNews.com, Caitlin Yilek Politics Reporter Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter at; Washington, based in; Examiner, D. C. She previously worked for the Washington (October 8, 2025). "Government shutdown live updates as Senate votes fail for 6th time". www.cbsnews.com. Retrieved October 8, 2025.
↑CBSNews.com, Caitlin Yilek Politics Reporter Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter at; Washington, based in; Examiner, D. C. She previously worked for the Washington; Hill, The; Yilek, was a member of the 2022 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship with the National Press Foundation Read Full Bio Caitlin; Digital, Kathryn Watson Politics Reporter Kathryn Watson is a politics reporter for CBS News; Washington, based in; Watson, D. C. Read Full Bio Kathryn; CBSNews.com, Melissa Quinn Politics Reporter Melissa Quinn is a politics reporter for (2025-10-04). "Government shutdown to continue into next week after Senate votes fail again". www.cbsnews.com. Retrieved 2025-10-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
↑Digital, Kaia Hubbard Politics Reporter Kaia Hubbard is a politics reporter for CBS News; Washington, based in; Hubbard, D. C. Read Full Bio Kaia; CBSNews.com, Caitlin Yilek Politics Reporter Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter at; Washington, based in; Examiner, D. C. She previously worked for the Washington; Hill, The; Yilek, was a member of the 2022 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship with the National Press Foundation Read Full Bio Caitlin (2025-10-06). "Government shutdown stretches into second week as Senate rejects funding bills again". www.cbsnews.com. Retrieved 2025-10-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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