Democratic Leaders Hesitant to Wage Shutdown Over Disagreements With Trump Administration

Days into the new year, congressional Democrats are livid over a litany of issues, including President Donald Trump’s unilateral invasion of Venezuela, stalled action on health care and, most recently, an immigration agent fatally shooting a woman in Minneapolis. But they are split on how to fight back.

With another critical government funding deadline on Jan. 30, Democratic leaders don’t appear willing to leverage their votes for spending bills in exchange for action. In fact, they appear to be openly forecasting there won’t be a shutdown at all.

“We’ll figure out the accountability mechanisms at the appropriate time,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters when asked about holding the Trump administration accountable.

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin told NOTUS he thinks Democrats “understand that we have a limited amount of time and a lot to get done … If we consider where we are in the month of January, we’ve got a lot of hard work to do.”

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It’s an about-face from the last government funding deadline, where Democrats weeks in advance publicly rallied around clearly defined demands in exchange for their votes. They wanted a clean extension of expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies; — when they didn’t get it, they voted to allow a government shutdown to go on for 43 days.

That didn’t work either. And while a small batch of Senate Democrats ultimately caved to end the standoff, Republicans remained steadfast, with GOP leadership offering virtually nothing in exchange. The latest hesitancy by Democrats to play hardball signals some might be unwilling to make that risk again.

“I think we should be doing so much more, but we don’t control the appropriations process right now,” Sen. Cory Booker told reporters earlier in the week when asked about using appropriations as a pressure point over Trump’s actions in Venezuela.

Booker downplayed how much his party could do to rein in funding, and pivoted to blaming the GOP for blindly following the president’s directives.“We have influence over it, but as long as the people that are running the House and the Senate continually bend over backwards to do whatever he says, they’re more partisan puppets than they are actually standing up and doing their constitutional duties.”

Still, that’s not stopping rank-and-file Democrats from threatening to use government funding as leverage, particularly on funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration operations.

“We’re about to have the DHS budget before Congress,” Sen. Chris Murphy, a Senate Appropriations Committee member, said Wednesday. “And it’s clearer than ever that Democrats can’t support this budget if there aren’t constraints on the growing illegality of DHS, and it appears the lethal illegality of DHS.”

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, another Appropriations Committee member, said that “nobody wants the government shut down,” but “it’s going to be important that Trump and his administration work on a bipartisan basis to address a lot of the issues.” He also cited the DHS budget as a point of concern.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday that the Senate Appropriations Committee is planning to take up the issue of funding for the Department of Homeland Security but stopped short of saying whether he wanted Democrats to withhold the support for the department’s budget as leverage.

Instead he emphasized committee review. “The Appropriations Committee, particularly the committee of Homeland Security, are taking up this issue, and then we’ll have a very important and serious discussion,” he told reporters Thursday morning. “Looking at the video, there seemed no justification for what these agents did. There needs to be a full investigation at the federal level, although I have little faith in the FBI doing a fair investigation, or DHS, but at the local level as well.”

And Jeffries said the focus should be on the “tragedy” that took place in Minneapolis.

“We support the removal of violent felons from this country who are here illegally. But that’s not what this administration has been doing under the so-called leadership of Kristi Noem, who’s a stone-cold liar. There’s no evidence at all that this was a justified shooting, so let’s deal with the tragedy right now,” he told reporters.

But wielding the power of the purse is the minority party’s most powerful tool, and while top Democratic leaders vow there will be accountability, unless they threaten funding for agencies they aren’t left with many other options. And have yet to go beyond making broad statements.

To be sure, there are three weeks left until the government shutdown deadline, and a lot can change between now and then. Outside groups have been particularly vocal in recent government funding fights, pressuring Democratic leaders to hold the line against advancing any Trump administration priorities.

Lawmakers are currently working to advance new appropriations bills in the hopes of avoiding a continuing resolution. But as the calendar — especially in the Senate — grows busier, floor time could become increasingly scarce. A war powers resolution targeting Trump’s action in Venezuela is expected to eat up hours of voting and debate over the next week after narrowly advancing in the Senate on Thursday.

Members could also vote to advance new funding for certain areas of the government as opposed to others — like the Department of Homeland Security. That could leave DHS unfunded, or operating on a continuing resolution instead.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Thursday said he’s not yet sure how DHS funding will work out, noting that “the DHS bill is always one of the most difficult ones,” and acknowledging the “political conflict” around the issue.

“My understanding is they were making good headway,” Thune added. “But it’s a bill that’s fraught with some political issues that I think create division and obstacles to getting it done. So we’ll see. Could go either way.”