The Senate passed a spending package on Friday, based on a compromise reached between President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats.
Jory Heckman
January 30, 2026 6:36 pm
3 min read
Agencies are preparing for an imminent government shutdown, as lawmakers advance a spending package that would likely end the funding lapse by Monday.
An Office of Management and Budget spokesperson told Federal News Network that agency guidance on a potential funding lapse been “ongoing” this week, and that it would direct impacted agencies to begin shutdown procedures once funding runs out Friday at midnight.
“We always prep agencies for a potential lapse, and we start that process early,” the OMB spokesperson said.
The Senate passed a spending package on Friday, based on a compromise reached between President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats over funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
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The spending package will now head to the House, which is not scheduled to return until Monday.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told the Associated Press that he might have some “tough decisions” over whether to bring the House in session over the weekend to pass the Senate-approved spending package.
A weekend shutdown would have little impact on agency operations.
The IRS, however, told employees on Friday that all staff will be “exempt from furlough” through Saturday, Feb. 7, if the shutdown extends into next week. The agency began this year’s tax filing season last week.
“Employees should report to work on their regular schedules,” the memo from the IRS chief human capital officer states.
The IRS said it would operate normally using Inflation Reduction Act funds it received in August 2022 to rebuild its depleted workforce and modernize its legacy IT systems.
The Senate passed a two-week continuing resolution for DHS and five spending bills that would fund large swaths of the federal government for the rest of the fiscal year.
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Those five bills include funding the departments of Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, as well as several other agencies.
The stopgap spending for DHS would give lawmakers more time to negotiate over guardrails on the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations, following the deaths of two protestors in recent weeks.
Democrats called for new restrictions on the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement surge after Border Patrol agents on Jan. 24 fatally shot Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse working at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center. Pretti’s death took place two weeks after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot another protester, Renee Good.
The guardrails Democrats are pursuing include an end to “indiscriminate” patrols by immigration officials and a prohibition on ICE personnel entering people’s homes without a judicial warrant. Democrats are also seeking body cameras and a ban on federal immigration officials covering their faces.
“No one thinks we’re going to solve every problem, every single problem, in one fell swoop. But the American people are demanding that something gets done, and of course, to pass legislation and enshrine this into law. We need our Republican colleagues to come along with us,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Thursday.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Thursday, “there has understandably been a great deal of attention focused on the Homeland Security portion” of the spending package, adding the fatal shooting of Pretti “must be thoroughly and impartially investigated.”
Collins said the DHS spending bill in its current form includes a provision that “would make such incidents as less likely to occur.”
That includes $20 million for body-worn cameras and $2 million to ensure that training requirements include how to de-escalate encounters with protesters. The bill also includes a provision that allows the DHS inspector general to review and investigate detention centers.
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