Congress seems on track for a partial government shutdown after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Senate Democrats would not support a package of appropriations bills scheduled for a vote this week if it includes funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
Schumer’s comments came after federal agents shot and killed a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident on Saturday. Funding for several of the government’s largest agencies is included in the six-bill spending package and current funding is set to expire at midnight on Friday.
Republicans will require support from Democrats to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to advance the funding bill. Schumer said that he would personally vote “no” on the DHS bill.
“Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the DHS funding bill is included,” Schumer said in a statement on Saturday.
Schumer’s announcement follows calls by Democrats to scale back resources for DHS and requests for reforms of ICE’s methods. An ICE agent in Minneapolis shot and killed resident Renee Nicole Good earlier this month, after which President Donald Trump threatened to use the Insurrection Act to deploy military troops to Minnesota.
Senate Democrats are expected to hold a call on Sunday, several outlets reported. The Senate is not expected to return until late Tuesday due to a winter storm affecting Washington.
Several other Democratic senators also vowed to vote against DHS funding on Saturday. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, who consistently broke with Democratic leadership to continue government funding during the longest government shutdown in history last the fall, said she would not support the Homeland Security funding bill.
“The Trump Administration and Kristi Noem are putting undertrained, combative federal agents on the streets with no accountability,” Cortez Masto said. “They are oppressing Americans and are at odds with local law enforcement. This is clearly not about keeping Americans safe, it’s brutalizing U.S. citizens and law-abiding immigrants. I will not support the current Homeland Security funding bill.”
Sen. Jacky Rosen, who voted to pass the deal to end the 43-day shutdown in November, said she will not vote to fund DHS.
“As a member of the U.S. Senate, I have the responsibility to hold the Trump administration accountable when I see abuses of power –– like we are seeing from ICE right now. That is why I’ll be voting against any government funding package that contains the bill that funds this agency, until we have guardrails in place to curtail these abuses of power and ensure more accountability and transparency.”
Sen. Brian Schatz, the Democratic chief deputy whip, also said he would not support the measure.
“I am voting against funding for DHS until and unless more controls are put in place to hold ICE accountable. These repeated incidents of violence across the country are unlawful, needlessly escalatory and making all of us less safe.” He also maintained Republicans didn’t have the votes to pass the package.
The funding bill passed the House on Thursday with support from just seven Democrats. The first shooting in Minneapolis was also expected to threaten the bill’s prospects in the House, but it prevailed.
It’s unclear how Senate Republican leaders will proceed. They could potentially strip out the DHS funding bill and attempt to pass the bills funding the other agencies.
Rep. Andrew Garbarino, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, formally requested on Saturday that leaders of ICE, CBP and U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services testify at a full House committee hearing.
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