Trump signs stopgap funding bill into law, temporarily avoiding shutdown

President Trump on Wednesday signed a stopgap government funding bill into law, affirming Congress’s efforts to temporarily avert a shutdown until at least Dec. 11.

By signing the “Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027” into law, Trump ensured federal agencies will be funded through November’s midterms into December. The measure passed the Senate and House with overwhelming majorities of 90-6 and 370-48, respectively, as lawmakers moved weeks ahead of the Sept. 30 funding deadline.

With the government funded through Dec. 11, Congress faces another holiday season appropriations battle, two years after lawmakers waited until the 11th hour to finance federal agencies days before Christmas.

Last fall, the government shut down for a record 43 days as Democratic lawmakers sought an extension of since-expired Affordable Care Act premium subsidies.

From February until May, for 76 days , the Department of Homeland Security went without appropriated funds. The pause began as Democrats pushed for reforms to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics in response to the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti — whom federal officers fatally shot during operations in Minneapolis.

Both shutdowns resulted in widespread travel issues ; air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers went without pay during the fall 2025 stalemate, and TSA officers again missed out on paychecks during the DHS funding lapse.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) did not get his entire conference to back the funding bill , portending the potential for future difficulties in preventing a shutdown. Nineteen House Republicans voted against funding the government over their objections to Senate-added provisions, including a short-term delay of a ban on intoxicating hemp products .

But House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.), who voted for the bill, argued avoiding a shutdown before the midterms took precedence.

“When we passed our continuing resolution over here, we knew it would change when it got to the Senate,” Cole said on the floor just before the House passed the bill Tuesday. “Some of those changes I actually agree with, some of them I don’t.

The Oklahoma Republican continued, “But they don’t really change the substance of the fact we bought the time that we need to get through the election cycle and hopefully the time that we need to get down to serious bargaining on the other side of it.”

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), the No. 4 House Democrat, backed the measure along with the lion’s share of his caucus. But noting the government was funded through the end of this month, he said Congress should have instead used the time to work on a longer-term package.

“We have a whole nother month left, and the Republicans who control the House, the Senate and the White House are basically waving the white flag of surrender and saying, ‘We don’t know how to govern, we don’t know how to pass appropriations bills,’” the California lawmaker told reporters Tuesday.

“It is not a good way to run our federal government. But it’s the only alternative that’s going to be before us, so I’ll be voting for it,” Lieu added.