Senators Are Scrambling on a Deal to Avert a Shutdown After the Funding Package Fails Key Vote

The Senate blocked a six-bill appropriations package from moving forward Thursday ahead of a Friday government shutdown deadline, but members of both parties seemed optimistic that reaching a deal is still possible.

The terms of that deal, like splitting off Department of Homeland Security funding from the larger package and how long a funding patch for that department may last, are still unclear.

Democrats and several Republicans — including Sens. Mike Lee, Rand Paul, Rick Scott, Ted Budd, Ron Johnson, Ashley Moody and Tommy Tuberville — voted 45-55 to block the package. Senate Majority Leader John Thune flipped to vote against the bill so that he could procedurally bring up the legislation again. After a conference lunch on Thursday, some Republicans suggested a deal could still be finalized soon. Thune said after the vote that there “could be” additional votes Thursday night.

After immigration enforcement agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minnesota, support tanked for passing the DHS funding portion of the appropriations package. Senate Democrats called for Republican leaders to strip the DHS funding bill from the larger appropriations package like the House did. Democrats want to rework the DHS bill to include reforms of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, including ending roving patrols, tightening rules around warrants and updating a code of conduct for officers.

Efforts to broker a deal are underway. Thune told reporters on Thursday that the White House and Senate Democrats are discussing removing the DHS funding bill from the other spending bills — an about-face from Republicans’ position a few days ago. Thune said he had talked to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer as recently as Thursday morning.

“There’s a path to consider some of those things and negotiate that out between Republicans, Democrats, House, Senate and White House,” Thune said. “The White House and Democratic leadership are going to have to find a way to land the plane.”

Thune added that the White House is having “very constructive discussions and conversations” with Senate Democrats. President Donald Trump said Thursday in a Cabinet meeting that he is “getting close” to a deal with Democrats and “we’re working on that right now.”

“We’ll work in a very bipartisan way, I believe, not to have a shutdown. We don’t want a shutdown,” Trump said.

Democrats say they think an agreement is possible, too.

Sen. Chris Murphy, ranking member of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Homeland Security, said it shouldn’t take more than a few days to work out DHS reforms since the proposed policy changes have already been on the table for a while.

“If I’m a Republican, I don’t want to be in the position of saying there’s no need for reform. I understand we’re not going to fix everything in this bill. Obviously, I have a very long list of things that I think are wrong at the Department of Homeland Security, but the reforms we put on the table are impactful, and they’re possible,” Murphy said.

But Murphy said Democrats say they need to see how serious Republicans are about working on immigration reforms, as well as details on the length of a potential continuing resolution for DHS. Like other Democrats and Republicans, he said the CR should be short, as in a “handful of days.”

Sen. Chris Coons told reporters Thursday that he feels good about the conversations happening between Senate Democratic leadership and the White House.

“I’ve almost never seen the Democratic caucus so united and so clear that things have got to change with regards to ICE and their conduct,” Coons said. “My impression is the White House is pressing on it and is trying to actually be constructive in the appropriations process.”

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin said the process to move forward with the funding bills isn’t the issue, but it comes down to whether Republicans will agree to Democrats’ demands on ICE.

“Splitting it was never an issue,” Durbin said. “The issue is whether there was going to be meaningful reform when it came to DHS.”

Sen. Katie Britt, chair of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Homeland Security, also told reporters Thursday that the length of any short-term DHS bill depends on negotiations between the White House and Democratic leadership.

“I’m here for it. I think we saw what happened in the last government shutdown, with regards to how it hurt real hard-working Americans, people who depend on that,” Britt said. “We’ve done a lot of good work on appropriations.”

The contours of any funding deal could easily change in the days to come. The remaining batch of proposed government funding runs out Friday at midnight, and any changes to the legislative text would require the House to return to D.C. and vote on the new package. Given the slim margin there, that could be an uphill battle.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Thursday he has been in touch with House Speaker Mike Johnson and Schumer, but not the White House. He was careful in explicitly detailing terms as talks continue to take shape.

“If there is a continuing resolution it cannot be endless and it cannot be long,” Jeffries said. “That’s the most that I’ll say about it right now.”

This story has been updated with new information.