Judiciary Has Funds to Operate Until Jan. 10 After Shutdown

The federal judiciary has the money to continue fully operating for at least three more weeks, as the government inches closer to a shutdown after a Trump-backed spending measure failed on the floor.

A spokesperson for the Administrative Office of the US Courts said that in the event of a government shutdown, the judiciary “would continue using court fees and other available balances through at least January 10,” and would continue to assess its finances to determine if it can fully operate for longer.

If the court system runs out of funds before Congress manages to pass a spending measure, the judiciary “would continue operating, but would be limited to activities needed to support the exercise of the Judiciary’s constitutional functions and to address emergency circumstances,” the spokesperson said.

Federal funding is set to lapse early on Saturday.

Discord among House Republicans derailed negotiations to pass a stopgap measure that would have kept the government afloat until mid-March. An agreement had appeared close when Republican appropriations leaders released text on Dec. 17 of a short-term spending measure, negotiated with Democrats, which included $110 billion for disaster relief efforts.

But shortly after, Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla Inc. and X Corp., published a string of posts bashing the legislation. President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance released a joint statement calling on Republican leaders to pass a spending bill “without Democratic giveaways” and that increases the debt ceiling.

On Thursday night, a measure supported by President-elect Donald Trump that would have suspended the debt limit failed to gather enough support on the floor, after dozens of Republicans and nearly all Democrats voted against it.

Once they leave Washington, Congress isn’t scheduled to return to Washington until Jan. 3.

The judiciary, which employs roughly 30,000 people, nearly exhausted its funds during the last major shutdown in 2018. Some projects were put on hold and funds were redistributed when the partial stoppage ran for more than a month.

The Case Management/Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF) system remained in operation for electronic filing of documents.