News

Department of Homeland Security Funding Faces Another Shutdown Risk

February 10, 2026

Washington may be heading toward an awkward Valentine’s Day, with lawmakers facing a February 14 deadline to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or risk another partial shutdown. 

Last week President Trump signed a bill to fully fund the remaining five government agencies through September 30, 2026, that were closed during the government shutdown in early February. They include:

  • Defense,
  • Financial Services and General Government Appropriations,
  • Labor-HHS-Education,
  • National Security-State, and
  • Transportation-HUD.

However, the bill only funds DHS until this coming Friday, Feb. 13 to give lawmakers more time to work out a deal.

What's next: On Sunday, the Democrats sent Republicans a list of ten demands they are calling “guardrails” in order to pass a compromise bill. These guardrails include judicial warrant requirements and limits on mask wearing by ICE agents, along with others you can read about here.

However, negotiations have not proved productive as of yet, with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) recently stating. 

We’ve got a — now — one-week-and-one-day time frame in which to do this, which is entirely unrealistic, and a Democrat Party in both the House and the Senate which seems a lot less interested in getting a solution to this than they do in having a political issue.
Source: The Hill

The bottom line: If the Senate doesn’t pass a bill to fund DHS by Wednesday, that leaves almost no time to get a bill over to the House and signed into law before Friday. 

  • To complicate matters, the House is scheduled to be on recess starting on Friday, February 13 and not returning until Monday, February 23.
  • This could set up a weekslong shutdown of the department. A short term funding patch could extend negotiations through late February, but the underlying issues would likely remain unresolved.
  • Many lawmakers are expecting a shutdown of DHS at this point due to time constraints. If a shutdown does happen, it will be limited to programs under DHS, which includes airport TSA and FEMA. While TSA agents would still be deemed “essential”, they would work without pay as in past shutdowns. 

Contact James Montfort (jmontfort@crefc.org) with any questions.

Contact 

James Montfort
Manager,
Government Relations
202.448.0857
jmontfort@crefc.org
The information provided herein is general in nature and for educational purposes only. CRE Finance Council makes no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, validity, usefulness, or suitability of the information provided. The information should not be relied upon or interpreted as legal, financial, tax, accounting, investment, commercial or other advice, and CRE Finance Council disclaims all liability for any such reliance. © 2026 CRE Finance Council. All rights reserved.

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