Senate Democrats’ demands for supporting a government funding package ahead of Friday’s shutdown deadline are focused on reforming federal immigration-enforcement agencies. But Republicans aren’t making any promises to play along — yet.
“Democrats stand ready today to pass the five bipartisan bills in the Senate, but the Department of Homeland Security bill needs serious work,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday. “And Republicans and Democrats alike owe it to the American people to get it right.”
Following two deadly shootings by federal agents in Minnesota, Senate Democrats have called on Republican leadership to strip DHS’s funding from a larger appropriations package. The chamber must pass legislation by midnight on Jan. 30 to avoid a partial government shutdown. The House separated the DHS bill from a larger appropriations package it passed last week, and Democrats in the Senate want to do the same in order to rework the bill and institute reforms for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.
On Wednesday afternoon, Schumer further detailed Democrats’ ultimatum, laying out a list of demands targeting DHS’s immigration enforcement operations. They include ending roving patrols, tightening rules governing the use of warrants, implementing a code of conduct for officers and mandating use-of-force guidelines. Democrats also want to require immigration enforcement officers to use body cameras, carry identification and not wear masks.
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Democrats appear most interested in amending the DHS bill before final passage, though caucus willingness to accept a continuing resolution with commitments to later reforms remains unclear.
A number of Senate Republicans have called for investigations into the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti on Saturday, but leadership hasn’t signaled they’re willing to strip DHS funding from the broader appropriations package. And the House would need to vote on any amended version of the DHS bill, which would be politically risky and almost certainly lead to at least a few days of lapsed funding.
“You’re injecting a lot of uncertainty into the equation here by not moving the package as drafted with the input of the Democrats,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday. “I mean, this is a pretty carefully constructed package, which, I think, as demonstrated by the big vote in the House.”
He added: “It seems to me, at least, if there’s a way that the Democrats have things that they want, the White House could accommodate short of having to modify the bill. That would really be, I think, the best way to do what we need to do here.”
But Democrats have signaled they’re not looking for executive action and instead want Congress involved in addressing changes to DHS agencies through legislation.
Sen. Chris Coons, the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, who used to oversee a large police department in Delaware, told NOTUS these demands are the same as standard protocols for state and local law enforcement.
“I have not heard anything back from Republicans suggesting that they’re willing to embrace all of this and put it into law, but if they don’t, we’re not going to move forward on appropriations,” Coons said.
There are signs that Democrats’ demands — at least for the DHS bill to be stripped from the minibus — could pan out. A handful of Senate Republicans, including Sens. Lisa Murkowski, Mike Rounds, John Kennedy and Thom Tillis, have publicly supported removing the DHS portion from the larger appropriations package in order to fund the remaining departments.
Other Republicans remain wary of moving DHS separately from the larger bill, citing other critical areas that risk lapses in funding. Though the DHS bill does fund ICE, which is the center of political ire right now, it also funds other agencies like the Transportation Security Administration, the Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Secret Service.
Sen. Bill Cassidy told NOTUS that the recent winter storm, which killed several people in his home state of Louisiana, begs questions on whether FEMA funding would be held up.
“Are we really going to pull that funding from FEMA?” Cassidy told reporters. “I gather, ICE has enough funding. They have the funding, so what we’re going to hurt is all those other issues that have to be done, so that’s my concern.”
Senators were hopeful to vote on appropriations by Thursday. Though, as questions linger on the exact arrangement of the legislation, votes could easily trickle into Friday ahead of the pending deadline.
“I’m not sure how I’d rate the odds,” Sen. John Hickenlooper told reporters. “Let’s put it this way: I’m hopeful there’s not a shutdown, and even if there is, it might just be over the weekend and the House comes back on Monday and sorts it out.”
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