Good evening from New York City, where temperatures finally - but only briefly - climbed back up to the freezing mark and the mounds of discolored snow and ice left from last week's big storm are slowly but surely turning into streams of sludge that will leave you ankle-deep in muck if you take a wrong step. It's the greatest city in the world!
Here's what's happening.
Trump Signs $1.2 Trillion Spending Package to End Partial Shutdown
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.
$45 Billion for ICE Detention Centers Sparks Backlash
In the "Big, Beautiful Bill" that became law last summer, Republican lawmakers provided President Trump with $45 billion to fund a massive expansion of immigrant detention facilities, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is beginning to spend those funds at sites around the country - though not without controversy.
As the Associated Press reports Tuesday, proposed ICE facilities are drawing protests in the aftermath of the Trump administration's aggressive crackdown on undocumented immigrants, which has resulted in multiple deaths at the hands of federal agents. Hundreds of protesters gathered at a board of supervisors meeting outside of Richmond, Virginia, last week, as county officials reviewed a proposal to build a new ICE facility. In Kansas City, Missouri, the mayor said he is working to prevent an ICE detention site from being built in the city. Officials in Oklahoma City and Salt Lake City said last week that local property owners will not be selling or leasing sites to ICE.
Still, ICE continues to move forward with its expansion. Last month, the agency purchased multiple large-scale warehouses, spending $102 million for a site in Washington County, Maryland; $84 million for a site in Berks County, Pennsylvania; and more than $70 million for a site in Surprise, Arizona.
"They will be very well structured detention facilities meeting our regular detention standards," ICE said in a statement. "It should not come as news that ICE will be making arrests in states across the U.S. and is actively working to expand detention space."
As ICE presses ahead, some states are looking at legislation that bans or otherwise limits the agency's activities, though there are questions about the legality of such efforts. Last week, the New Mexico House passed a bill that would prohibit the state and local governments from entering into contracts with ICE to operate detention facilities. Similar bills are under review in Hawaii, Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island.
Fiscal News Roundup
- House Passes Bill to End the Partial Government Shutdown, Sending the Measure to Trump – Associated Press
- Congress Ends Shutdown, Approves $1.2T in Funding - and Sets Up DHS Cliff – Politico
- Senate Democrats May Not Back Next Homeland Security Stopgap Bill – Semafor
- No Filibuster Deal With House Conservatives, Thune Says – Politico
- Congress Is About to Overhaul the Drug Market. Consumers May Never Feel It – Politico
- The Wealthy Ramp Up Spending While Other Americans Tread Water, New Study Finds – Associated Press
- Lawsuit Argues Trump Gold Card Visa Program Prioritizes Wealth Over Ability – New York Times
- SBA Cuts Off Non-US Citizens From Primary Loan Program – Politico
- US Plans to Issue License for Firms to Pump Venezuelan Oil – Bloomberg
- EU to Offer US Critical Minerals Partnership to Check China – Bloomberg
- Trump Seeks $1 Billion From Harvard Amid Dispute Over Alleged Campus Antisemitism – NBC News
- New Pentagon Science-and-Innovation Board Arrives as Administration Cuts Research Funding – Defense One
- DOT Wants to Prohibit Free Buses. That Could Be a Problem for Mamdani in NYC – Politico
- Builders Push 'Trump Homes' in Pitch for a Million Houses – Bloomberg
- Washington State Lawmakers Join Other States in Proposing a Millionaire's Tax – Politico
Views and Analysis
- After Making Hollow Threats, House Freedom Caucus Members Cave (Again) – Steve Benen, MS Now
- The Effects of Tariffs, One Year Into Trump's Trade Experiment – Ana Swanson, New York Times
- The US Economy Needs the Hudson River Tunnel Project – Michael R. Bloomberg, Bloomberg
- Trump's IRS Lawsuit Short-Circuits the Executive Branch – Washington Post Editorial Board
- Little to Gain by Raising Taxes on the Rich – Washington Post Editorial Board
- Trump's Chaotic Governing Style Is Hurting the Value of the U.S. Dollar – David J. Lynch, Washington Post
- The Recovery You Don't Feel Is Real – John Authers, Bloomberg
- Warsh Looks Like a Smart Choice for the Fed ... for Now – Bloomberg Editorial Board
- How a Famed Economist Views Kevin Warsh for Fed Chair – Sam Sutton, Politico
- How Millions of Everyday Investors Are Getting a Tax Break – Paul S. Atkins, Washington Post
- RFK Jr.'s Attacks on Vaccines Just Hit a Wall of Pediatricians – Leana S. Wen, Washington Post
- Moderna's Chilling Announcement Is a Symptom of a Deeper Sickness – Washington Post Editorial Board
- Even the Happiest Place on Earth Has Measles – Jessica Karl, Bloomberg
- South Carolina's Measles Milestone Is Everyone's Problem – Lisa Jarvis, Bloomberg
- Space-Based Interceptors Make Even Less Sense Now – Lisbeth Gronlund and David Wright, Defense One