President Donald Trump signed a $1.2 trillion appropriations minibus into law on February 2, effectively ending a four-day partial government shutdown. The Senate passed the package (H.R. 7148) by a vote of 71-29 during the last week of January, and the House passed the bill earlier this week by a vote of 217-214. This finalizes Fiscal Year 2026 spending for the Department of Defense, Transportation-HUD, National Security-State, Financial Services and General Government, and Labor-HHS-Education. Funding for the Department of Homeland Security was extended via a continuing resolution through February 13.

Federal Managers Association National President Craig Carter urged Congress to avert another government shutdown prior to the House and Senate actions, writing, “shutting down the government is never a good option, puts our nation’s security at risk, and negatively impacts federal employees and their communities.” The measure signed into law by President Trump accomplishes FMA’s goal.

“The recent government shutdown wasted billions of dollars and created undue stress on Americans across the country,” Carter wrote. “It is in the best interests of all Americans to keep the federal government open and for Congress to find a compromise to funding our government. The American people believe legislators should work across the aisle to find solutions, and the Federal Managers Association wholeheartedly agrees.”

Congress now has one more week to negotiate funding for DHS. Congressional Democrats are seeking increased accountability and restrictions for federal immigration agent officer actions, reinforced rights related to protests, searches and seizures, and tighter warrant requirements. Republican lawmakers say consideration of these measures should also include prevention of harassment of agents and required cooperation of local governments with federal authorities.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said, “Hopefully there will be a sense of urgency around if there’s a path forward, what it might look like, and what individual component pieces might be included.”

As the 119^th Congress largely turns to Fiscal Year 2027 funding, House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK) expects the White House budget office to delay President Trump’s FY 2027 budget request to Congress until early March. The statutory deadline – the first Monday in February (Feb. 2 this year) – has passed. Earlier this week, Cole said he intends to begin committee markups of FY2027 funding bills in May, with a goal of having all 12 funding measures cleared from the committee prior to the traditional August recess.

We noted last month President Trump called for $1.5 trillion in defense spending for FY 2027. Trump made a post on his Truth Social media platform, writing that the $1.5 trillion figure would provide for the United States to build a “dream military.” The proposed $1.5 trillion figure for FY27 would be approximately $500 billion more than this year, based on defense appropriations and funding included in the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” President Trump attributes the ability for the increase in spending to “tremendous income” resulting from tariffs.