Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: US President Donald Trump on February 3 signed a spending deal into law that ends a partial US Government shutdown and gives lawmakers time to negotiate potential limits on his immigration crackdown.
The legislation restores lapsed funding for defence, healthcare, labor, education, housing and other agencies, and temporarily extends funding for the Department of Homeland Security until February 13. Funding for those agencies expired on January 31 as the Congress did not act in time to avert a shutdown, but has not resulted in major disruptions for government services so far.
Trump negotiated the spending deal last week with Senate Democrats, who are demanding new restraints on Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement tactics following the killing of two US citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis last month. Trump’s administration is already deploying body cameras on immigration agents in Minnesota, partially acceding to one of the Democrats’ demands. Other Democratic proposals will face more resistance.
Funding for some agencies expired as Congress did not act in time to avert a shutdown
The deal passed the Senate by a wide bipartisan margin last week and narrowly passed the House of Representatives earlier by a vote of 217-214. The last shutdown lasted a record 43 days in October and November, furloughing hundreds of thousands of federal workers and costing the US economy an estimated $11 billion.
Now, the Congress and the White House will turn to thorny negotiations over new guardrails on immigration enforcement in the DHS funding bill. Democrats insisted on separating out the DHS measure following enforcement actions in Minneapolis. House Speaker Mike Johnson spent most of February 2 trying to work through rebellions in his party against ending the shutdown. Among them were conservative lawmakers demanding a vote on the SAVE Act. A shutdown in 2025, which spanned 1 October to 14 November, had widespread impacts on essential government services including air travel and left hundreds of thousands of federal workers without pay for weeks.
