Democrats block bill to avoid shutdown so Homeland Security can be decided on its own

Senate Democrats blocked a spending package to avoid a partial government shutdown to buy time to negotiate guardrails for immigration enforcement agencies after two killings in Minneapolis.

Democrats voted against the legislation on Thursday known as a minibus that includes funding the Departments of Homeland Security, Transportation, Defense, Health and Human Security, Labor and Education. Democrats want to see that legislation split and funding for the agencies to be voted on separately, as they look for ways to force change to how federal agencies enforce Trump’s deportation push.

“It was bulls*** that put them together in the first place,” Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona told The Independent.

If the funding is not agreed to and passes both houses, it would result a partial government shutdown.

Republicans in the House of Representatives passed the legislation - that included funding for all agencies and an additional $10 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement - last week with the support of seven Democrats. But that came before Customs and Border Protection officials shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. That killing came weeks after Immigration and Customs Enforcement shot and killed Renee Good, also in Minnesota.

“Let me be clear: Democrats are ready to pass five bipartisan funding bills in the Senate,” Schumer said in a floor speech. “We are ready to pass them today. We are ready to fund 96 percent of the federal government today. But the DHS bill still needs a lot of work.”

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Schumer and other Democrats want to enact a series of reforms for ICE and CBP including ending roving patrols of ICE agents in cities; search warrants; cooperating with state and local law enforcement; a uniform code of accountability for officers; removing masks for ICE agents and body cameras during operations.

Republicans are more amenable to some of these changes than others. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina told reporters that he did not want ICE agents to be doxxed.

The goal with the latest block is ultimately be to have a separate vote on five of the spending bills. The new bills would be kicked back to the House for a vote while the Senate holds a separate vote on a stopgap spending bill for Homeland Security to give senators time to negotiate the legislation.

The House would then hold a vote on the stopgap before both chambers pass a bill to fund Homeland Security for the rest of the fiscal year.

“It’s not ideal, but it’s better than shutting down the government,” Sen. John Conryn, a Republican from Texas, told The Independent.

The move would trigger a brief partial government shutdown, unlike the government shutdown last year wherein Democrats opposed a continuing resolution in hopes of triggering an extension of the Covid-era enhanced tax credits for the health insurance marketplaces under the Affordable Care Act.

That shutdown ended after eight Democratic senators defected to join Republicans to reopen the government.

“I didn't like the fact that we sort of gave up on the health care fight too early, I thought we could have won that fight,” Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, the top Democrat on the Appropriations subcommittee for Homeland Security, told The Independent.

“This is an opportunity for us to stick together and win on behalf of the American people,” he said. “I think people want us to fight.”

Even Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, who voted to reopen the government after last year’s shutdown, told The Independent that she approved of splitting the most recent bills.

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Since then, the Senate has passed six of its spending bills. But even if the government were to shut down, ICE would still be sitting on $75 billion thanks to the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” that President Donald Trump signed last year that boosted mandatory spending for agency outside of the appropriations process.

“Sadly, what's going to happen by partial shutdown is FEMA is not funded, Coast Guard is not funded, Secret Service is not funded, TSA is not funded,” Sen. Steve Daines told The Independent.

Still, the move shows how Republicans have had to adjust with public opinion after the killing of Good and Pretti.

“Minnesota right now are just quite focused on two things: one, ICE out of Minnesota,” Democratic Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota told The Independent. “And two, no more funding for this agency that is committing all this violence in our community.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, a Republican moderate who called for Kristi Noem to resign as Homeland Security secretary, expressed optimism.

“You have to be optimistic, otherwise, why would you get up in the morning and come to work?” she said.