Congress Leaves Town With No Deal on Funding for Department of Homeland Security, Guaranteeing Shutdown on Saturday

Congress is leaving town with no deal on a funding package for the Department of Homeland Security, guaranteeing that a shutdown will begin on Saturday. Though every other part of the government is fully funded through the end of the fiscal year, flight disruptions, missed paychecks, and impacts to natural disaster response could be on the horizon.Since the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota last month, Senate Democrats have been using their leverage to demand critical reforms at ICE and Border Patrol. After trading some initial ideas with the White House this week, no deal was reached. Senator John Thune on Thursday announced that the Senate would leave town for the next 10 days so that his colleagues can attend the Munich Security Conference in Germany. He told reporters that, despite some calls to stay in the capital and continue working on a deal, there is no compromise in sight. “We’re not close,” he told reporters Thursday afternoon. The top Democrats in Congress, Senator Chuck Schumer and Congressman Hakeem Jeffries laid out a list of demands for ICE and Border Patrol reforms last week. Their proposal included forcing deportation agents to identify themselves, requiring judicial warrants for searches, barring agents from entering schools and polling places, and requiring agents to wear body cameras and remove their masks, among other things. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Mr. Jeffries said the White House would not make changes to warrant requirements, would not force federal agents to conduct investigations alongside state and local officials, and would not institute new use of force policies for immigration agents. In two last-ditch attempts to keep the lights on at DHS, Senate Republicans tried to get funding bills through the chamber on Thursday, though Democrats blocked those legislative items. A vote on the House-passed annual budget for DHS failed to reach the 60-vote threshold in order to end debate and proceed to final passage, with only one Democrat, Senator John Fetterman, voting yes. Had that passed, DHS would have been funded until the end of the fiscal year, which comes at the end of September. Shortly after, the chairwoman of the subcommittee which writes the DHS budget every year, Senator Katie Britt, went to the Senate floor to ask that the chamber pass a two-week funding extension for the department at current levels. She said it would allow lawmakers to “continue to negotiate.”“The timeline, we knew, was going to be short. It took the Democrats until Saturday evening to actually produce legislative text,” Ms. Britt said. “We are working in good-faith to find a pathway forward. What we’re asking is [to] let us continue to do that.”Ms. Britt asked that the funding extension be passed by unanimous consent, which means there is no vote on the measure and that any senator has the right to object to the request. Ms. Britt’s Democratic counterpart on the DHS funding subcommittee, Senator Chris Murphy, objected to her request, killing the bill immediately. “It wasn’t until last night — literally on the verge of the shutdown — that we got our first offer of [a bill] from the White House,” Mr. Murphy said on the floor. “I wish we weren’t here. I wish our Republican colleagues and the White House showed more seriousness from the start.”“Senate Democrats have been clear … this Department of Homeland Security — this ICE — is out of control,” he added, saying that he and his Democratic colleagues will not allow DHS funding bills to pass without real reforms. “This Department of Homeland Security is not obeying the law.”

Congress Leaves Town With No Deal on Funding for Department of Homeland Security, Guaranteeing Shutdown on Saturday

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