Senators Block Funding Package Amid Dhs Standoff

Eight Republicans joined every Senate Democrat to block sweeping government funding legislation from advancing Thursday amid ongoing negotiations around a potential offramp to avert a lengthy shutdown of several agencies.

The Senate voted 55-45 against moving forward with a six-bill package that would fund, among other things, the departments of Homeland Security, State and Health and Human Services, as well as the Pentagon.

The measure accounts for more than 75 percent of discretionary spending across the federal government, and programs relying on this money will shutter if Congress cannot reach a deal by 12:01 a.m. Saturday.

The House already passed these bills, then left town for recess. The Senate was on track to clear them without much drama. But then came last weekend’s killing in Minneapolis of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, at the hands of Border Patrol agents.

The incident has fueled new scrutiny of the administration’s immigration enforcement activities, including from some of President Donald Trump’s more reliable GOP allies on Capitol Hill.

Democrats now say they will oppose advancing the funding measure as long as funding for DHS is included — or until Republicans agree to legislation that would put new guardrails around ICE.

The current DHS bill would reduce the agency’s budget for enforcement and removal efforts but also hand ICE $10 billion for the remainder of the fiscal year. It would require DHS to use $20 million to outfit immigration enforcement agents with body cameras, direct the department to give officers more training on defusing conflict while interacting with the public and provide a separate $20 million for independent oversight of DHS detention facilities.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said ahead of the vote Thursday that Democrats remain ready to pass the other five funding bills included in the package as he engages in discussions with the White House on what further changes could be made to the DHS bill to address Democrats’ concerns.

The New York Democrat said “strong legislation to rein in ICE” is necessary.

“Congress has to step up to the plate,” Schumer added. “The Republican majority must step up to the plate.”

Democrats across Congress want rules tightened around the use of warrants and identification of DHS agents conducting immigration enforcement operations, among other things.

Many of Democrats' requests for changing the DHS bill were pursued earlier in the process at the committee level, but didn’t have the support to make it into the bipartisan and bicameral compromise package.

Republicans and Democrats are talking, according to a person granted anonymity to speak freely, but a deal is not done.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in an interview Thursday before the doomed procedural vote that he believed the negotiations were “trending in the right direction.”

After the vote went down, Thune moved to lay the groundwork to quickly bring the package back up if Democrats and the White House can a deal. He voted “no” to give himself the option to force reconsideration later.

Republican Sens. Ted Budd of North Carolina, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Rick Scott and Ashley Moody of Florida were the other GOP lawmakers who voted “no.” Some are seeking a potential opportunity to reshape the Department of Homeland Security funding bill; others are looking to secure further spending cuts.

Ultimately, Congress appears likely to barrel over the shutdown cliff for at least some amount of time, as the House is out of town until Monday and hard-liners in that chamber have already vowed to complicate leadership’s ability to pass the funding bills a second time. House GOP leaders are set to meet later Thursday to discuss options, two people familiar with the private deliberations said.

The other person granted anonymity to share details of private party dynamics said Democrats could be willing to shore up the votes for a short-term spending patch — as long as it is very brief for the sole purpose of allowing more time to close out negotiations on a new DHS bill.

Senate Republicans believe the administration is open to making changes to the House-passed DHS measure in the wake of the backlash over Pretti’s death. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins also announced Thursday morning that Homeland Security Secretary Krisi Noem had informed her that ICE had ended its enhanced operations in Maine at the Republican lawmaker’s request — another sign the White House could be ready to cooperate.

Members of both parties want to move quickly. Though the congressional fight has been focused on immigration enforcement activities, the DHS bill also would fund the Coast Guard, FEMA, TSA and other critical agencies through Sept. 30.

Some Democrats had raised concerns in particular about FEMA funding as a significant swath of the country continues to recover from a widespread winter storm from this past weekend.

Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.