Washington, DC, 04 February (H.S.): President Donald Trump affixed his signature to a hard-fought spending bill on Tuesday, (February 3, 2026), abruptly terminating a partial government shutdown that had gripped the nation since Saturday, January 31, after Democratic intransigence over funding for the Department of Homeland Security's aggressive immigration enforcement operations.

The measure, greenlit by the Republican-dominated House in a razor-thin 217-214 vote earlier that day—with 21 Democrats crossing the aisle alongside GOP loyalists, while an equal contingent of Republicans dissented—reached the White House, funding most federal agencies through September via five consolidated bills, plus a 14-day DHS stopgap to facilitate protracted policy negotiations.

Trump, presiding over his second Oval Office stint following the 43-day shutdown stalemate last summer, hailed the package during the signing ceremony as a great victory for the American people, extolling its fiscal restraint over bloated omnibus monstrosities replete with special-interest pork, while safeguarding essential security and prosperity initiatives.

The impasse ignited after federal agents fatally shot two US citizens in Minneapolis last month—Renee Good, a mother of three, and Alex Pretti, a veterans' nurse—amid the city's emergence as an epicenter of Trump's immigration crackdown, prompting Democrats to demand reforms curbing masked, warrantless DHS sweeps by heavily armed, unidentified operatives.

Yielding to mounting bipartisan outrage, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced on Monday that agents in Minneapolis would don body cameras effective immediately, with nationwide rollout to follow, averting deeper shutdown fallout that furloughed non-essential workers and suspended myriad services.

Lawmakers now confront a compressed two-week window to hammer out DHS's full-year appropriations, as Democrats press for enforcement guardrails and conservatives advance hardline priorities in this politically charged arena of shuttered operations and unpaid federal furloughs.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar