Christmas Vacation and Congress: ‘We’re all in misery’ amid the ongoing DHS shutdown

If you thought the Congressional appropriations process couldnt get any worse, I present you with 2026. And perhaps beyond.

The Department of Homeland Security remains shut down, running on pocket lint, nickels lost between the couch cushions and faded S&H Green Stamps (look em up, kids). Congress hasnt funded DHS for two months. torqued himself into a political pretzel – opposing, then supporting, then not acting on – a Senate-approved package to fund most of DHS.

As we always say, its about the math, and when it comes to DHS money, it appears that lawmakers have locked a box to which they lack the combination. There is apparently no sequence of votes in the House and Senate which can crack the DHS safe as a traditional, standalone appropriations bill. 

Now, Congressional Republicans and are turning to one of the few methods which might work to fund DHS – something called budget reconciliation.

The Congressional budget reconciliation process is not customarily used for appropriations bills – although lawmakers can plug the measure with money to spend on federal programs. However, reconciliation is inoculated from filibusters. Thus, Republicans dont need 60 votes. They can – ostensibly – pass a DHS bill on its own without help from Democrats if they hold their narrow coalitions together in both the House and Senate.

Congressional Republicans intend to stuff this reconciliation package with only money for ICE and Customs and Border Patrol. Nothing for disaster aid. Nothing for farmers. Nothing about the SAVE America Act. The president agrees. The goal is to finish this by June 1 – months after the latest DHS funding lapse.

But its more complicated than that. 

The House and Senate must take a number of steps to approve a shell of a budget resolution in order to have the filibuster-proof reconciliation tool available to them. Republicans undertook a similar endeavor last winter and spring. It was absolutely harrowing and consumed months before finally approving the One, Big, Beautiful Bill, via reconciliation. Republicans dont have that kind of time now. Then again, DHS has either been unfunded or held together by interim spending bills since last October.

We havent even mentioned how Trump is using a somewhat dubious authority to and others from other funds – without Congressional approval.

That leaves some to question why the administration didnt do this to start with. But the bigger issue is an alarming pattern of Congress ceding its most precious prerogative – the power of the purse – to the executive branch. Thats to say nothing as to whether Trumps gambit to pay workers is even Constitutional. And, it establishes a precedent which may be hard to ignore during other funding impasses.

However, heres the bigger problem: the Congressional paralysis to pass appropriations bills on a timely basis. Thats been an issue for years now.

Historically, Congress has missed the Oct. 1 fiscal deadline, relying on “Continuing Resolutions” (CRs) which simply renew all funding on a temporary basis. Or, lawmakers cobble together a set of the 12 annual spending bills in a “minibus” appropriations package. Lawmakers who might oppose an individual bill are willing to support a group of bills – because theres something in there which they like or support.

But turning to reconciliation as a way out of the appropriations box canyon is also another precedent which likely agitates Congressional appropriators. Sure. Theyve done that before. And in this instance, it might finally get DHS funded. But what does this mean for the future?

Which brings us to Oct. 1, 2026. Thats when the federal government pivots from Fiscal Year 2026 to start Fiscal Year 2027. 

Congress has struggled to fund the federal government since early 2025, when it began work on appropriations bills for this year. The FY 26 funding crisis – which spawned the record-breaking, 43-day, in the fall, ano