WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security is all but certain to shut down over the weekend as lawmakers leave Washington without reaching a deal.
Senate Democrats blocked a funding bill Thursday that would have provided money for DHS through September. Now, the department is set to run out of money just after midnight Saturday. The funding lapse is expected to last at least a week while lawmakers are on recess.
Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., who has been leading DHS negotiations for Republicans, said it was “absurd” that senators will be out of town instead of discussing the issue in Washington.
“I think we should stay here, and we should work to find a pathway forward, because I think people are depending on it,” Britt told Alabama Daily News. “I think the work that the department does is important, and I think we owe it to the people we serve to stay here and figure it out, particularly as we’re moving and working back and forth.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters he sent senators home because they’re “not close” to reaching a compromise, but lawmakers are on notice to return if a breakthrough happens. The House is also out of session next week.
The White House and Democrats have traded proposals this week as the two sides worked to find agreement before the Friday deadline. But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., argued the Trump administration’s offers were “not serious.”
“The path forward is simple: negotiate serious guardrails that protect Americans, that rein in ICE and stop the violence,” Schumer said after the vote.
Despite the near-certain shutdown, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection operations will continue, as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act already provided $75 billion for the agencies. The impacts on other agencies under DHS, including the Coast Guard, FEMA and TSA, will become more significant the longer the shutdown lasts.
After the funding bill, which needed 60 votes, was rejected in the Senate, Britt requested a short-term extension for DHS via unanimous consent.
“Extend this funding for two more weeks, so that as we talk, that as we negotiate, TSA agents don’t miss a paycheck, so that FEMA workers who are helping to get out disaster relief to people who have been ravaged across this country (get a paycheck),” Britt said on the Senate floor.
But Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, Britt’s counterpart on the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, objected.
“We believe we have a constitutional obligation to only fund a Department of Homeland Security that is obeying the law, and this Department of Homeland Security is not obeying the law,” Murphy said, referencing federal immigration tactics under the Trump administration.
In the wake of the killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Democrats have pushed for multiple restrictions on ICE, including an end to roving patrols and requirements that federal agents wear identification and unmask. As Democrats and the White House go back and forth, neither side has revealed what changes to the department they are pushing for or are willing to accept in a final deal.
Looking ahead, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said “any negotiations with Democrats that handcuff our ICE officers’ ability to do their job is a definite no vote for me.”
Despite Congress being out of session next week, talks are expected to continue.
“This can get done,” Thune told reporters.
If DHS shuts down on Saturday, it will mark the third funding lapse in less than six months.