The Senate is scrambling to come up with a plan to avoid a partial government shutdown after current funding expires for a broad range of agencies on Friday night. So far, there’s little sign that a deal will come together in time as disagreements over a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security threaten to derail a bipartisan appropriations package following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
Republicans are resisting Democratic demands to separate out a measure to fund Homeland Security from a House-passed bundle that includes five other spending bills. Breaking up or amending that package would require the House, which is out this week, to vote on the legislation again. Republicans reportedly worry that another DHS funding bill won’t be able to get through the House. Leaders of the House Freedom Caucus said Tuesday that they would oppose an amended DHS funding bill. “We cannot support giving Democrats the ability to control the funding of our Department of Homeland Security,” Freedom Caucus leaders wrote in a Tuesday letter to President Trump.
Democrats, meanwhile, are rejecting proposals that would have them pass the complete funding package and then have the Trump administration take steps to address concerns about its aggressive immigration enforcement.
“This fix should come from Congress,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor. “The public can’t trust the administration to do the right thing on its own and the Republicans and Democrats must work together to make that happen.”
In addition to the Homeland Security, the spending package sent over by the House would fund the departments of Defense, State, Treasury, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development.
The bottom line: As of now, a Senate vote to move ahead with the House-passed six-bill funding package is scheduled for Thursday.