Government shutdown ends after 35 days

The U.S. government temporarily returned to full funding late Friday night after more than a month of a partial government shutdown that resulted in hundreds of thousands of furloughed government employees and contractors. Impacted agencies, including those within the departments of Interior and Agriculture, will be operating under fiscal year 2018 funding levels until Feb. 15.

The additional three weeks to negotiate a fiscal year 2019 spending bill has been provided to allow House and Senate conferees time to determine a mutually acceptable path forward on the Trump administration’s request for funding a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. If no deal is reached by Feb. 15, agencies without 2019 funding bills signed into law will once again close.