Partial Government Shutdown Looming

Last week, Congress released and the House passed a carefully negotiated final FY 2026 spending bill that includes funding to protect the federal student aid programs and provides full-year funding for the remaining six spending bills, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The Senate was expected to pass the bill this week, thus meeting the January 30 deadline to avoid a government shutdown. However, due to recent events involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minneapolis, such approval is uncertain, which could result in a partial government shutdown.

A short shutdown of the Department of Education will not impact current student aid funding as FY 2026 amounts are released on July 1, 2026, for the 2026-27 award year. If a shutdown continues into March, there could be an impact on colleges packaging federal need-based student aid.

The final spending package includes the departments of Defense, Labor-Health and Human Services-Education, Transportation-Housing and Urban Development, and Homeland Security. The House passed the bill by a vote of 338-77 before leaving Washington for a scheduled district work period. This bill was packaged with the Financial Services General Government and National Security bills and sent to the Senate as a final 6-bill package to vote up or down.

In the Senate, 60 votes are required to pass spending bills, which means the Republican majority needs Democratic votes to pass the package and keep the government open. The negotiated package had support from House and Senate bipartisan leadership and Republican and Democratic appropriators. Now, there is bipartisan opposition to the spending package as currently written.

If the Senate makes any changes to the negotiated package, the House will need to return to Washington and re-vote to approve any changes. Given political and logistical challenges, it is likely that federal funding for the affected departments and functions will lapse at midnight on January 30. Even if a new path forward can be negotiated for the DHS bill, the clock could run out on the current continuing resolution causing a short partial government shutdown.

For more information, please contact:
Stephanie Giesecke