How and when did the 2018-2019 government shutdown end on January 25 2019?

1. How the stalemate broke: a short-term spending bill, not wall money

The shutdown concluded when lawmakers passed and the President signed a stopgap appropriations bill that reopened approximately three-quarters of federal agencies and restored pay for furloughed workers, without granting the border-wall funding that was the central point of contention. Reporting consistently describes the measure as a short-term funding resolution intended to keep the government operating until February 15, 2019, while providing Congress and the White House additional time to negotiate border-security provisions. The resolution in practical terms represented a concession by the White House on the immediate demand for $5.7 billion for the wall and instead relied on a bipartisan process to pursue future border-security agreements ^{[2] [3] [4]}.

2. Timeline clarity: 35 days from December 22 to January 25

The shutdown began when funding lapsed at the end of December 2018 and is uniformly recorded as lasting 35 days, ending on January 25, 2019. Multiple summaries and timelines in the provided material confirm the December start and the January 25 end date, marking it at the time as the longest federal shutdown in modern U.S. history. The duration figure and the start and end dates appear consistently across the analyses, framing the January agreement as the immediate mechanism that halted the shutdown after this multi-week impasse ^{[1] [5] [3]}.

3. Legislative mechanics: H.J.Res. 28 and short-term funding through Feb. 15

The device used to end the shutdown was a joint resolution—commonly referenced as H.J.Res. 28 in the legislative summaries—that provided temporary appropriations through February 15, 2019. That resolution functioned as a continuing resolution: it temporarily reauthorized funding levels so federal operations could resume while leaving substantive border-security negotiations to a subsequent process. Later action in mid-February amended and extended funding for the remainder of the fiscal year, but the January 25 measure’s primary role was as a stopgap to restore operations and compel negotiations ^{[6] [3]}.

4. Political context: pressure, concession, and warnings of future action

Coverage of the end of the shutdown frames the resolution as the product of mounting political pressure on the White House and congressional leaders. The President agreed to the short-term bill after intense public and political scrutiny, which was characterized as a concession because it did not secure the requested wall funds. At the same time, statements from the White House signaled that the administration reserved the right to resume a shutdown or pursue a national emergency declaration if negotiations over border security failed by the February 15 deadline, underscoring that the January agreement was a temporary pause rather than a final settlement ^{[3] [2]}.

5. What different accounts emphasize and what they omit

The provided analyses converge on the core facts—the end date, the 35-day duration, the short-term funding solution, and the omission of wall money—while varying in emphasis. Some accounts highlight the legislative mechanics and the specific joint resolution number, others emphasize the political dimensions and the President’s tactical retreat. What’s less prominent across the sources is granular detail about the negotiation terms debated in the bipartisan conference committee or the exact breakdown of which agencies reopened immediately versus which remained partially affected; those operational details are not fully unpacked in the supplied summaries ^{[4] [6] [3]}.