WASHINGTON — Congress is careening toward another government shutdown after fatal shootings in Minneapolis by federal officers sparked broad Democratic opposition to funding the Department of Homeland Security.
Lawmakers have until midnight on Friday to pass the six remaining spending bills to avoid a partial shutdown. The House finished passing all 12 bills last week. Alabama’s congressional delegation split on party lines on the DHS bill, but all the state’s members supported the other bills in the final package. The Senate’s work week was also shortened by a day because of the snowstorm.
What’s at stake?
Since President Donald Trump has already signed half a dozen spending bills into law, the country won’t face a total government shutdown this time. Federal food assistance benefits will not be impacted. Funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Interior, Commerce and Justice departments also won’t be affected.
However, large swaths of the federal government still need to be funded under the package that senators have to pass by Friday. The affected agencies include the Department of Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services and Education departments, and the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development departments.
Federal workers could be furloughed and those deemed essential could have to work without pay during a partial shutdown. Alabama is home to more than 41,000 federal workers, some of whom would be impacted.
The Homeland Security Department is the most controversial to fund in the wake of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. If Congress is unable to reach a deal, funding for agencies including TSA, FEMA, Coast Guard and the Secret Service would lapse. That could mean more travel disruptions and delays in emergency response to the massive winter storm.
But Immigration and Customs Enforcement will still have money to carry out operations, as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act provided the agency with $75 billion.
Why is another shutdown possible?
Before the killing of Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol agent over the weekend, some Democrats were already hesitant to support funding for DHS without adding guardrails around the immigration enforcement operations. But the second fatal shooting in Minneapolis prompted a majority of Senate Democrats to coalesce around opposing the DHS bill this week.
In the Senate, bills need at least 60 votes to advance. So if all 53 Republicans vote for the package, at least seven Democrats would have to join them to pass the legislation. Eight Democrats joined all but one Republican in November to end the last shutdown. That appears unlikely to happen at this point.
What happens next?
Senate Democrats want the package broken up so that lawmakers can vote on the DHS bill separately from the other five bills.
“…in the wake of ICE’s abuses and the administration’s recklessness, the Senate must not pass the DHS budget as currently written, and must be reworked to rein in and overhaul ICE,” Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor Tuesday.
But Republicans are standing behind the original package, pushing to advance all six bills together without any changes. A first vote on the package is expected Thursday.
“I urge my Democrat colleagues to continue their engagement and find a path forward that will avoid a needless shutdown and not jeopardize full funding for key agencies like FEMA and the Coast Guard,” Sen. Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said on the Senate floor.
If any changes are made to the package in the Senate, the legislation will have to go back to the House for a vote. The House is on recess and isn’t scheduled to return until Monday, after the funding deadline.
But passing a new DHS bill in the House won’t be smooth sailing. The House Freedom Caucus announced Tuesday it will not accept any changes made to ICE funding or the DHS bill in the Senate.
“We cannot support giving Democrats the ability to control the funding of our Department of Homeland Security,” the caucus wrote in a letter to Trump.