Federal government shutdown 2026 enters Day 3; agencies shutter amid funding deal delay

The US government entered a partial shutdown Saturday, January 31, as the House awaited approval of a funding deal worked out by President Donald Trump with Democrats. The lapse is expected to be short, and most essential federal workers, like the military and air traffic controllers, will continue working. The House is also expected to return from a break and Donald Trump supporting the package deal.

Unlike the 2025 autumn federal government shutdown, most federal employees working on the weekends are deemed essential workers and were not furloughed in this shutdown. Recently, House Speaker Mike Johnson had said that he expects the shutdown to end in a few days.

This is the second time Congress has failed to fund the government since Trump returned to office last year. A 43-day shutdown during the autumn was the longest and most disruptive ever, with food aid halted to millions of households, thousands of flights canceled and federal workers going without pay for more than a month.

This shutdown is more limited since some parts of the government already are fully funded through the Sept. 30 end of the federal fiscal year.

This includes the Department of Agriculture, so food stamp programs will continue without interruption. Funding has also already been secured for national parks, veterans’ services, and the Justice Department.

The affected agencies are Treasury, Defence, Homeland Security, Transportation, Health and Human Services and Labor Department. These agencies will will be shut, as per the White House memo.

“It is our hope that this lapse will be short,” OMB Director Russ Vought wrote in a memo Friday, adding that the administration will be prepared to order the government to reopen as soon as Trump signs a funding bill into law.

The House Rules Committee added a vote on the spending measure to the agenda for its Monday afternoon meeting to send it to the floor for final passage. It’s unclear whether the Bureau of Labor Statistics will delay the release of the monthly jobs report, scheduled for Friday, if there’s a brief government shutdown.

The shutdown fight erupted after a US citizen, Alex Pretti, was killed in a confrontation with Border Patrol officers in Minneapolis last weekend. Democrats refused to renew funding for the Homeland Security Department unless new restraints were placed on immigration enforcement.

Democrats are seeking requirements that DHS agents use body cameras and obtain judicial warrants. They also want to forbid the masking of agents and stop broad immigration sweeps.

(With Bloomberg inputs)