| Lawmakers won’t return to Capitol Hill today for legislative business as the federal government faces the imminent prospect of a partial shutdown set to affect funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). |
| With no agreement in sight on funding for the agency, senators departed Washington after casting final votes on Thursday and aren’t set to return until Feb. 23. |
| Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has said a deal is “not close,” despite extensive negotiations between Democrats and Republicans on the issue over the past two weeks. |
| That sets the stage for, at minimum, a 10-day shutdown that will affect several major DHS subsidiaries, including the U.S. Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), and others. |
| Earlier this month, Congress passed legislation finalizing funding for 96 percent of the government through Sept. 30 of this year. As part of that package, funding for DHS was extended until Feb. 13. |
| After that bill was finalized, lawmakers immediately dove into negotiations related to the DHS bill as Democrats demanded sweeping changes to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a subsidiary of DHS, and other federal immigration enforcement agencies. |
| However, progress on those negotiations has been slow, with no agreement on implementing the reforms demanded by Democrats as a condition for their support. |
| On Thursday, the Senate rejected a last-ditch effort to provide full-year funding to the agency. |
| In a 52–47 vote that fell short of the required 60-vote threshold, all Democrats except Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) voted against the measure. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) missed the vote. |
| Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) had announced Democrats would oppose the measure on social media. |
| “The Republican bill on the floor allows ICE to smash in doors without warrants, to wear masks and not be identified, to use children as bait for their parents, no oversight,” Schumer said in a video posted to X. “We are keeping our word: No funding for ICE until it is reined in; no funding until the violence ends.” |
| Democrats also shot down a bid by Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.)—who has taken a leading role in the negotiations—to extend DHS funding for two additional weeks. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), another negotiator, blocked the unanimous consent vote. |
| Murphy explained Democrats’ position in a post on X, writing, “DHS is shutting down. Why? Because Democrats took an oath of office to uphold the Constitution, and ICE is lawless and out of control. We cannot fund an agency that is murdering our citizens, tear gassing school zones, and disappearing legal immigrants.” |
| In a video attached to the post, Murphy said he was unconvinced by the administration’s decision to pull ICE and other immigration officials out of Minneapolis. |
| Concerns about immigration enforcement activity in Minneapolis reached a peak after two American citizens, Renée Good and Alex Pretti, were fatally shot by federal immigration agents in the city. |
| Following Pretti’s shooting, Schumer released a statement vowing that Democrats would not vote to fund DHS until reforms to federal immigration enforcement were made. |
| Murphy accused Trump of “trying to trick Congress” into authorizing funding by removing troops from Minneapolis, but expressed concerns that similar events could play out in another city if Democrats funded the agency without reforms. |
| “Our position is simple: We will fund the Department of Homeland Security, but only when there are statutory reforms—written into law—that stop ICE from engaging in this brutality. No more roving ‘show me your papers’ patrols. No more masks. Put on identification. Put on body cameras.” |
| Though ICE is at the center of the funding dispute, its activities are unlikely to be substantially affected by the shutdown. |
| That’s because last year, Republicans authorized $75 billion in funding over four years to the agency, meaning that it has the funding to continue its operations independently of broader funding for DHS. |
| In addition, most ICE agents are considered essential for national security, meaning that they will continue to work throughout a partial shutdown. |
| Instead, the shutdown will have a greater impact on agencies like the TSA and FEMA. |
| During a shutdown, the TSA will continue to operate with essential personnel, such as airport security, mandated to come to work. |
| However, government shutdowns historically see higher employee absenteeism among TSA staff, as essential employees go unpaid for the duration of the shutdown. That can result in longer security lines and wait times at the airport. |
| FEMA, which oversees emergency response to major disasters in the United States, will also be impacted by the shutdown. While the agency oversees a $7 billion contingency fund, administrators have told Congress that a catastrophic disaster could test the limits of that fund if a shutdown persists. |
| —Joseph Lord |
| BOOKMARKS |
| The FBI says last month’s decision to seize 2020 voter records in Fulton County, Georgia, was based on “substantiated” irregularities. The agency took around 700 boxes of voter materials as part of an investigation into whether election irregularities “were intentional acts that violated federal criminal laws,” FBI Special Agent Hugh Raymond Evans said in a court filing. |
| Texas Senate primaries kick off next month, with incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R), Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D) jousting for supremacy. Find out who’s who and what’s what by reading Nathan Worcester’s latest. |
| House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and other Democratic leaders say a White House proposal to fund the Department of Homeland Security doesn’t pass muster. “My preliminary assessment of it is that it falls short of the type of dramatic changes necessary in order to change ICE’s out-of-control behavior,” Jeffries told reporters on Thursday. |
| The tiny border town of Brackettville, Texas, struggled under a flood of illegal immigration in recent years, but the recent crackdown by the Trump administration has turned that around. Read Darlene McCormick Sanchez’s special report to see how. |
| Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz wants a one-time $10 million funding package for businesses harmed by the recent ICE operations in his state. “The federal government needs to pay for what they broke here,” Walz said at an event where he announced the plan. |
| —Stacy Robinson |
