Partial shutdown in US government likely until at least Tuesday

The House of Representatives failed to pass the necessary budget legislation by a January 30 deadline, marking the start of a government shutdown.

The upper chamber of the US Congress, the Senate, agreed on a last-minute compromise solution for follow-up funding, but the lower chamber, the House of Representatives, is not expected to vote on the new budget bills until Monday at the earliest.

President Donald Trump must then sign them into law.

The speaker of the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" programme on Sunday that they intend to secure budget funding by Tuesday.

The latest budget issues follow the fatal shooting of two US citizens in Minneapolis following aggressive deportation enforcement pushed by Trump's administration.

That prompted calls from Democrats in the Senate to block the budget bills, since they contained funding for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, which has been conducting the immigration raids.

Part of the compromise agreed by the Senate on Friday was the regular passage of five budget bills plus a special provision for the Department of Homeland Security, the agency that oversees ICE.

The compromise allows for a two-week transitional budget to give Democrats and Republicans time to negotiate a compromise that can win majority support.

The partial government shutdown began on Saturday. This means that many agencies are no longer receiving money because the follow-up funding is missing.

Unlike the longest shutdown in US history, which ended in November 2025 after 43 days, fewer departments are affected this time.