Research & Developments is a blog for brief updates that provide context for the flurry of news regarding law and policy changes that impact science and scientists today.
The U.S. government entered a partial shutdown Saturday at 12:01 Eastern time after Congress failed to resolve a showdown over funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The DHS appropriation was tied into a six-bill package that also included funding for the Departments of Defense, Education, Health and Human Services (HHS), Housing and Urban Development, Labor, State, Transportation, and Treasury.
Senate leaders and the White House struck a deal late Thursday evening to split the DHS spending bill away from the other five bipartisan appropriations bills. Friday evening, the Senate passed the amended appropriations package ahead of the shutdown deadline; it will continue to negotiate the DHS bill for 2 weeks.
However, any changes to the spending bills, including splitting them apart, also need to be passed by the House of Representatives, which is on recess until Monday 2 February. Until the House votes on the five-bill package, the agencies included in that package will remain shut down, as will DHS. (ICE will continue to operate during the shutdown due to money allocated in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025.)
“We may inevitably be in a short shutdown situation…but the House is going to do its job,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters Thursday evening, suggesting that the House will act quickly to pass the amended five-bill package and avoid significant financial impacts.
What’s Shut Down for Science?
DHS runs the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is currently helping coordinate state-level responses to the massive winter storm that impacted millions of people across southern and eastern U.S. states over the past week. The DHS spending bill, which includes FEMA funding, has not been agreed upon or passed. Experts have said that FEMA would have enough money in its Disaster Relief Fund to continue to respond to storm-related impacts during a partial shutdown, at least for a few weeks.
During the most recent shutdown, which lasted 43 days this past fall, the Department of Education furloughed 87% of its employees. Under its shutdown contingency plan, the department states that it will continue to disburse Pell Grants and Federal Direct Student loans, and borrowers will still be required to make payments. States, schools, and other grantees will be able to access funds. However, no new grants will be issued, and its barebones Office of Civil Rights will pause reviews and investigations.
During the fall 2025 shutdown, HHS furloughed 41% of its employees. According to its contingency plan, the department will maintain the minimal level of readiness for all health hazards, including pandemics and extreme weather response. Drug and medical device reviews will continue, as will disease outbreak monitoring and support to Medicare, Medicaid, and other healthcare programs. Data collection, validation, and analysis, grant oversight, and some CDC communications will cease.
Democrats are pushing for increased oversight and restrictions on ICE’s activities throughout the country after federal agents killed two people, Renee Macklin Good and Alex Pretti, in Minneapolis in January and engaged in other actions toward immigrants that have sparked national outrage. Democrats’ immigration demands have not been agreed to by Republicans or the White House.
Appropriations bills funding other science-related agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, National Science Foundation, NASA, NOAA, and the U.S. Geological Survey, have already become law. These agencies will continue to run during the current partial government shutdown.
—Kimberly M. S. Cartier (@astrokimcartier.bsky.social), Staff Writer
These updates are made possible through information from the scientific community. Do you have a story about how changes in law or policy are affecting scientists or research? Send us a tip at [email protected].
