Punchbowl News: “Funding for the Department of Homeland Security ran out Friday evening. In conversations with lawmakers and aides on both sides of the aisle, there doesn’t seem to be any real rush to end the impasse.”

“Remember that DHS has more than 260,000 employees across an array of agencies. Somewhere around 90% of DHS employees are classified as essential, including 95% of TSA agents, most of the Coast Guard and Secret Service. These federal employees will work without pay throughout the funding lapse, so it may be some time until the public feels the impacts of the DHS shutdown.”

Bloomberg: “The dynamics aren’t much different than in previous shutdowns under President Donald Trump. Democrats are making their votes dependent on policy changes — limits on immigration enforcement operations — that are being resisted by Republicans.”

“But this time, Democrats are seizing on what appears to be a genuine moment of leverage after the widespread outrage over the killings of two US citizens in Minnesota by federal agents during immigration enforcement operations.”

New York Times: “The Capitol emptied out on Thursday, a full day before the midnight Friday deadline for funding the Department of Homeland Security. Lawmakers who were deadlocked over new restrictions on immigration officers jetted off to Munich for a security conference or headed home for a weeklong recess, seemingly unconcerned with the looming closure.”

“It was a jarring change from the past, when lawmakers were reluctant to seem like they were giving up for even a moment before time ran out for a deal.”

Said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), as she headed for Germany: “We are not even going to pretend that we are trying to figure it out. It doesn’t look great.”

“The White House budget office is using millions of dollars from the former U.S. foreign aid agency to pay for the security detail of Russell Vought, President Donald Trump’s budget chief and an architect of the government overhaul that has cut thousands of federal jobs,” Reuters reports.

“A federal judge in Illinois on Thursday blocked the Trump administration’s plan to claw back $600 million in public health funds from four states led by Democrats, amid a wider effort by the federal government to pull funding from blue states,” the New York Times reports.

“The budget-slashing Department of Government Efficiency that upended the federal government at the start of President Donald Trump’s second term has stalled out on Capitol Hill, a reality that’s left conservative lawmakers fuming,” CNN reports.

“Inside the White House, the cost-cutting crusade marked by mass firings and blanket funding eliminations is largely seen as over, two people familiar with the discussions said, as Trump turns his attention to other priorities. On Capitol Hill, Republicans have passed just a single bill enacting $9 billion in DOGE cuts – far short of Elon Musk’s aim of cutting as much as $2 trillion from the nation’s budget.”

“And now, Trump officials are signaling they likely will not try to pass another package clawing back more funds, with White House budget director Russell Vought telling one GOP lawmaker last month that it amounted to a long-shot given the razor-thin Republican majority in the House and a lack of appetite in the Senate.”

“The United States’ national debt is set to balloon to $64 trillion over the next 10 years, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said on Wednesday, citing a jump in annual deficits that owes in part to tax cuts enacted by President Donald Trump,” ABC News reports.

Politico: “The White House on Wednesday night sent Congress the legislative text of its immigration enforcement counterproposal… But key Democrats have already said they don’t believe the administration is serious enough about reigning in the immigration agencies, all but guaranteeing a funding lapse despite the text exchange.”

Punchbowl News: “Barring some dramatic turnaround, Congress will leave town today without having funded DHS, triggering a shutdown of the department. Some agencies within DHS — ICE and CBP — have already been funded via last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill, making it unclear how this crisis will ultimately play out.”

“The Internal Revenue Service improperly shared confidential tax information of thousands of individuals with immigration enforcement officials, appearing to breach a legal fire wall intended to protect taxpayer data,” the Washington Post reports.

“The first four months of fiscal year 2026 got off to an expensive start for the U.S.,” Fortune reports.

“The CBO released a report yesterday detailing that, for the first third of FY26 (which began in October), the U.S. government operated at a deficit, and so borrowed $696 billion. That included $94 billion in January alone, and works out to an average of $43.5 billion for each of the 16 weeks of the four months since.”

President Trump ruled out pushing another one-party reconciliation package through Congress, Politico reports.

Said Trump: “In theory we’ve gotten everything passed that we need. Now we just need to manage it. But we’ve gotten everything passed that we need for four years.”

Punchbowl News: “Democratic leaders rejected a White House counteroffer on DHS reforms in a late-night statement on Monday, complaining that the GOP proposal ‘included neither details nor legislative text.’”

“Earlier Monday, Senate GOP leaders were trying to lay the groundwork to pass another short-term DHS funding patch. They were working closely with the White House to convince enough Senate Democrats that negotiations are on the right track as Friday’s shutdown deadline looms.”

“But the joint statement from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries made clear that persuading even a small handful of Democratic senators to support a stopgap measure will be a heavy lift.”

Punchbowl News: “Funding for the Department of Homeland Security runs out on Friday. Just like any good shutdown deadline, this one is bumping up against the weeklong Presidents Day recess. You’ll hear a lot of threats in the coming days about canceling the recess, nixing overseas congressional delegation trips and keeping both chambers in for the weekend.l

“The House and Senate return tonight, which gives lawmakers just a few days to sort out this unusual situation. Only one federal agency is under threat of a shutdown, but it’s a massive department with more than 260,000 employees. Meaning this is a big problem.”