Week Ahead in Washington: February 1

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - The House of Representatives returns to Capitol Hill Monday with lawmakers trying to end the partial government shutdown that began after midnight Saturday morning.

The shutdown impacts multiple departments, with closures beginning over the weekend. The Senate passed a package Friday funding those agencies, but the House must now pass the same legislation before sending it to President Donald Trump.

If approved, the package would fund each agency except the Department of Homeland Security through September. DHS funding is set to lapse again in two weeks as both parties debate current Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics, with Democrats demanding more guardrails on ICE following the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

President Trump is set to welcome Colombian President Gustavo Petro to the White House on Tuesday. The meeting comes amid tension between the two men, with current U.S. sanctions on Petro for his alleged connections to drug trafficking.

Petro had also previously referred to Trump as a “racist” and an “authoritarian.”