USA Trump signs budget package: shutdown ends
The partial shutdown of US government business has ended. With his signature, President Donald Trump signed a budget package previously passed by Parliament into law, thus ending the second so-called shutdown in his relatively young second term in office. At four days, the partial shutdown of US government business that has now ended lasted significantly less than the shutdown that ended in November. At 43 days, this was the longest shutdown in US history to date.
03.02.2026, 20:17
03.02.2026, 23:10
SDA
A few hours before Trump signed the bill to end the current shutdown, the US Congress had cleared the way for it. The House of Representatives approved a funding package in a close vote after the Senate, the second chamber of parliament, had already given its consent.
This means that funding for the majority of the government apparatus is now secured until the end of September - with the exception of the Department of Homeland Security: the approved package only provides for temporary transitional funding for the department in a compromise solution. The background to this is the controversial deployment of ICE immigration officials and border guards against migrants, who are under the Department's authority.
In particular, the deaths of two US citizens during operations by federal officials had led to resistance in Parliament to longer funding for the Department of Homeland Security. The Democrats are now making reforms to ICE a condition, for example that federal officials should not be allowed to wear masks during their missions. So far, however, it is not clear that the Republicans will agree to this. Time is running out to reach an agreement, as the transitional funding for the department expires on Friday next week.
