Parts of the federal government — including the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) — could shut down again this weekend.
 
The U.S. House approved a bipartisan Fiscal Year 2026 appropriations bill last Thursday, which included DOE funding. The U.S. Senate appeared to be on track to do the same this week.
 
Senate Democrats announced this week that they would not advance the funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security unless it’s rewritten to include restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations. That bill is part of the same legislative package that includes funding for DOE and six other agencies.
 
Senate Republicans need at least seven Senate Democrat votes to meet the 60-vote threshold for approving appropriations bills. 
 
The first procedural vote on the spending bill today failed 45-55. 8 Senate Republicans joined all Senate Democrats to reject the measure with additional votes anticipated. In our North Carolina delegation, Senator Ted Budd (R) voted no and Senator Thom Tillis (R) voted yes. If Congress doesn’t approve the DOE spending bill by the Jan. 30 midnight deadline, that agency would shut down for the second time in three months. Even if the Senate makes changes and approves the bill, the new version will still need to be approved by the House when they return from recess as expected next week.
 
A short DOE shutdown wouldn’t pose a significant impact to federal education funding in the short term. But there are a few exceptions, including Impact Aid, which is the program that supplies districts monthly installments of funding for non-taxable, federally owned land.
 
As deliberations continue in both chambers, proceedings can be tracked for the Senate here and House here.