While Congress had appeared on a glide path to approving the remaining appropriations bills by the January 30 government funding deadline plus some trade and health care add-ons — with the House having passed all 12 annual spending measures, and the Senate expected to package and pass the remaining half-dozen this week after a recess last week — events in Minnesota over the weekend upended the funding plan by prompting some Senate Democrats to say they will oppose the Homeland Security funding measure. This raises the prospect of a partial government shutdown, which seemed only a remote possibility heading into the weekend.

Sixty votes will be required to pass the remaining appropriations bills in the 53-47 Republican-led Senate and, while the details of the situation were debated between members of both parties, the operative statement regarding the funding status in the Senate came from Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on January 24: "Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the DHS funding bill is included." Other Senators made the argument on Sunday political talk shows. "We can't vote to fund this lawless Department of Homeland Security … " Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) said on CNN's "State of the Union." "We should only vote for a bill that puts constraints on this lawlessness, that reforms the way that they are endangering our citizens in our cities."

Independent Senator Angus King (I-ME) said he would align with Democrats, saying Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation," "I hate shutdowns. I'm one of the people that helped negotiate the solution to the end of the last shutdown. But I can't vote for a bill that includes ICE funding under these circumstances. What they're doing in my state, what we saw yesterday in Minneapolis."

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 — passed as two separate votes in the House — encompassed the Defense, Labor-Health and Human Services-Education, and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development, and Homeland Security appropriations bills. The House-passed package includes an extension of two expired trade programs, the African Growth and Opportunity Act and the Haiti Economic Lift Program, through 2026, plus several health care programs.

The Senate is planning to begin voting on the package on Tuesday with only days to pass the spending bills before the January 30 expiration of government funding. The Senate must additionally approve the Financial Services and General Government and National Security-State Department bill, which leaders are planning to combine with the new four-bill package. The House is in recess this week, and any changes to the package would require an additional vote in that chamber to avoid a shutdown.

Senator Schumer clarified that he thinks the Senate should process five of the six remaining bills and Democrats and Republicans should negotiate on Homeland Security. Late Sunday, Republicans were reportedly planning to hold votes on the six-bill appropriations package as planned.

On Fox News Sunday, Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) said the House calendar shouldn't be determinative of whether there is a shutdown. "Speaker Johnson needs to bring the House back in — he needs to stop sending people home all the time when there's a tough issue that he has to deal with," she said. "Come back in. Let's sit down. Let's figure this out and let's get this done."

Trump Accounts — On Wednesday, January 28, Treasury will host a full-day summit to highlight the upcoming launch of Trump Accounts, the tax-advantaged savings/investment accounts created by last year's "One Big, Beautiful Bill Act" that parents, guardians, employers and others can establish for eligible American children under 18 to help build long-term savings — including a government seed contribution for certain newborns. "The summit will convene senior administration officials, everyday Americans, and key stakeholders to outline how Trump Accounts work, discuss projected economic impacts, and emphasize the administration's commitment to expanding financial opportunity for American families," said a press release. "The program will include policy briefings, expert discussions, and remarks by President Donald J. Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent."

Crypto — While the Senate Banking Committee's effort to establish a regulatory market structure for digital assets has been placed on the back burner for a few weeks or months, the Senate Agriculture Committee has scheduled a 3 p.m. markup on Tuesday (January 27) for its substantial portion of the bill, called the Digital Commodity Intermediaries Act. The two committees share jurisdiction over the crypto market structure bill because the Ag Committee oversees the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which stands to come away with broad new authority if the bill is enacted. Chairman John Boozman (R-AR) released an updated draft of the bill last week and scheduled the markup, but conceded that he had not made further progress on a bipartisan agreement with Democrats led by Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) despite two additional weeks of work. Booker's position on the new draft is not yet certain; while Tuesday's markup could play out in partisan fashion, Booker's team reportedly has said he will continue working with Boozman to try to resolve outstanding issues. A partisan markup would represent a major contrast from the House Agriculture Committee's vote on their piece of the CLARITY Act (HR 3633), which advanced 47-6 last June with broad bipartisan support.

At the Banking Committee, meanwhile, after opposition from a major crypto exchange tanked a scheduled markup of the market structure bill two weeks ago, Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) is shifting his focus to housing as Republicans look to make progress on affordability issues before the midterm election. The Banking Committee's bipartisan ROAD to Housing Act is queued up for the Senate floor after the FY26 spending bills are completed. Talks between Banking Committee members and industry representatives on the crypto bill have not resumed, and there is no resolution yet between Coinbase and the major banks in their dispute over the how to treat yield "rewards" paid by crypto platforms.