Deal strips DHS funding from 6-bill package while providing 2-week extension for agency
Partial government shutdown looms as DHS funding fight intensifies
Fox News congressional correspondent Bill Melugin reports the impending partial government shutdown due to a failed Senate procedural vote on spending bills on ‘America Reports.’
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Senate Democrats and the White House reached a deal to fund the government, but lawmakers aren’t out of the woods of averting a partial shutdown.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and President Donald Trump labored over a deal from late night Wednesday until Thursday evening after the top Senate Democrat unleashed several funding demands and the White House accused Schumer of blocking a meeting with rank-and-file Democrats.
“The separation of the five bipartisan bills the Democrats asked for, plus the two-week DHS [continuing resolution] has been agreed to,” Schumer said in a statement.
Trump, in a post on Truth Social, said the “only thing that can slow our Country down is another long and damaging Government Shutdown.”
SENATE GOP HOLDOUTS REFUSE TO BUDGE AS SHUTDOWN TALKS CONTINUE
The White House and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., reached an agreement to fund the government Thursday, sidelining the controversial DHS funding bill in the process. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)
“I am working hard with Congress to ensure that we are able to fully fund the Government, without delay,” Trump said. “Republicans and Democrats in Congress have come together to get the vast majority of the Government funded until September, while at the same time providing an extension to the Department of Homeland Security (including the very important Coast Guard, which we are expanding and rebuilding like never before).
“Hopefully, both Republicans and Democrats will give a very much-needed Bipartisan “YES” Vote.”
The deal brokered between the two would have the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill stripped from the broader six-bill package. Schumer and Democrats have been adamant that if the bill were sidelined, they’d vote for the remaining five, which includes funding for the Pentagon.
Their agreement also tees up a short-term funding extension, known as a continuing resolution (CR), for two weeks to keep the agency funded while lawmakers negotiate restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Trump and Schumer’s bipartisan truce comes after Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Republicans barreled ahead with a test vote on the funding package that was ultimately torpedoed by Senate Democrats and a cohort of seven Republicans earlier in the day.
7 REPUBLICANS JOIN DEMS TO BLOCK MAJOR GOVERNMENT FUNDING PACKAGE AS SHUTDOWN LOOMS
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., wants a vote on his amendment to strip millions in “refugee welfare money” from the funding package and may slow down the process unless GOP leadership relents. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
Republicans again have the opportunity to bring the package back to the floor, but to speed up the process, they would need consent from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
And they are still working out the kinks on their own end through the hotline process, where the package is scrutinized by every Senate Republican before being given the go-ahead for a floor vote.
Speeding up the process may prove tricky, given that several of the Republican defectors, including Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Ted Budd, R-N.C., were upset with earmarks baked into the bill.
And Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., wants an amendment vote on his provision to strip the bill of millions in “refugee welfare money” and signaled that he may slow the process down if he doesn’t get it.
TENSIONS BOIL IN HOUSE OVER EMERGING SENATE DEAL TO AVERT GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., teed up a key test vote on a funding package to avert a partial government shutdown as Democratic resistance threatens to thrust Washington, D.C. into chaos. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Many Senate Republicans recognize that stripping the DHS bill is not the best outcome but contended that it was better than not funding the government and entering yet another shutdown.
“That’s the only way we’re going to get through this without a long government shutdown,” Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., said.
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Despite lawmakers reaching an agreement that will likely see the remaining bills passed and keep DHS funded for a month, the House will have to agree. They don’t return until next week, and fiscal hawks are already publicly panning the plan.
Schumer, Trump working on deal to avoid government shutdown
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Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and President Trump are moving toward a deal to separate Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding from five other House-passed appropriations bills in hopes of avoiding a partial government shutdown this weekend, according to a source familiar with the discussions.
No agreement has been reached yet, but the discussions are ongoing and moving in the Democrats’ direction, according to the source.
“President Trump has been consistent – he wants the government to remain open, and the Administration has been working with both parties to ensure the American people don’t have to endure another shutdown. A shutdown would risk disaster response funding and more vital resources for the American people,” a White House official told The Hill.
Schumer and Senate Democrats are demanding that the pending DHS funding bill be pulled out of the six-bill appropriations package, which the upper chamber is scheduled to vote on Thursday.
The Democratic leader wants to pass a short-term extension of funding for the agency to give Congress time to negotiate and pass legislation to overhaul Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to “rein in ICE and the violence.”
“This is not border security, this is not law and order, this is chaos — created at the top and felt in so many of our neighborhoods,” Schumer said Wednesday at a press conference.
The New York senator has laid out three major demands for reforming ICE and other federal law enforcement agencies working on immigration enforcement.
Democrats want to end roving patrols by ICE officers and tighten rules governing the use of warrants, establish a code of conduct for federal law enforcement officers’ use of force, and prohibit officers from wearing masks and require them to wear body cameras and proper identification.
Some Republican senators are willing to split off the Homeland Security appropriations bill from the six-bill funding package the House passed last week.
GOP members of the Appropriations Committee want to get the departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Transportation and others funded before the Friday deadline, even if it means having to swallow a stopgap funding measure for Homeland Security.
“What are our choices? To throw out all the bills? Or one?” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Appropriations panel. “I think a rational person would say let’s pass what we can and work on the others.”
Republican sources say that the fate of the funding package will hinge on Schumer’s negotiations with the White House.
“I think right now, the conversation should be between the White House and Democrats,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters Wednesday.
“The White House obviously is open to negotiation,” he added.
Julia Manchester contributed
