The House on Tuesday narrowly passed a $1.2 trillion spending package and President Trump quickly signed it, ending the partial government shutdown that started Saturday and launching a 10-day scramble to see if Democrats and Republicans can hash out an unlikely agreement to reform the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics.
The package, approved by the Senate last week, includes five full-year spending bills that provide about three-quarters of the federal government’s discretionary funding for the fiscal year ending September 30. It covers the departments of Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, State, Transportation and Treasury.
The House’s 217-214 vote saw 21 Democrats break ranks to vote for the package and 21 Republicans defy President Trump and GOP leaders to vote against it.
The final vote followed a similarly narrow procedural vote earlier in the day that had to be held open for nearly an hour as Speaker Mike Johnson and his lieutenants in party leadership wrangled the votes of a small group of GOP holdouts. In the end, the vote to advance the package passed 217-215, with only Republican Rep. Thomas Massie crossing party lines. Republican Rep. John Rose of Tennessee initially voted against moving ahead with the funding package, arguing that the SAVE Act, a bill requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote, had to be included. He ultimately changed his vote to yes.
“The president nailed it down,” Rep. Tom Cole, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, told reporters. “I’m glad we are all nails and there’s one hammer.”
Difficult DHS fight ahead: Congress has now passed 11 of the 12 required annual appropriations bills and more than 95% of the funding it must approve for the year, with only the controversial Homeland Security measure left to be completed. The funding package passed by Congress funds the Department of Homeland Security only through February 13, buying time for further negotiations on Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Monday that all Homeland Security officers deployed in Minneapolis will be issued body cameras effective immediately and that body cameras will be provided for DHS officers elsewhere as funding becomes available.
That may address one Democratic demand, but reaching agreement on others will be more challenging.
After federal agents shot and killed two American citizens in Minneapolis, Democrats issued a list of demands, with body cameras for federal agents among them. But while some Republicans also support equipping federal immigration officers with body cameras, GOP leaders have rejected or resisted Democrats’ other major demands, including a ban on federal agents wearing face masks and tighter requirements for judicial warrants for arrests.
If the two sides fail to reach a deal, DHS — including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Transportation Security Administration — would likely face another shutdown, though ICE operations would be able to continue using a $75 billion funding boost provided by Republicans’ reconciliation bill last year. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Tuesday that another stopgap funding extension for DHS is “off the table.”
What’s next: With DHS funding set to run out in 10 days and a deal to reform federal immigration operations nowhere in sight, the House canceled Thursday votes and will leave a day earlier than scheduled.