Senate Approves Spending Deal, but Brief Partial Government Funding Lapse Expected

The Senate approved all but one of the six House-approved appropriations bills up for a vote in a 71-29 vote Friday evening. But these portions of the government are still expected to run out of money over the weekend, as the House won’t vote on the funding package until next week.

Under the agreement among Republicans, Democrats and President Donald Trump, the Department of Homeland Security funding bill was peeled out of the package, with the department operating under current funding levels until mid-February. Lawmakers are tasked with negotiating guardrails for immigration enforcement operations under a tight timeline.

Senate Democrats stalled the appropriations process after federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, in Minneapolis earlier this month. On Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer outlined guardrail demands for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which include tightening rules for warrants, mandating use of body cameras and ending roving patrols.

“Passing these bills reasserts Congress’ power over spending and means that President Trump and his cabinet secretaries will no longer have the legal authority to unilaterally defund programs to fund their own priorities,” Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement. “There’s more work ahead to get these bills signed into law and to rein in Kristi Noem’s out-of-control Department of Homeland Security.”

“If Republicans want Democratic votes for a Homeland Security funding bill, they need to work with us to rein in these rogue agencies,” Murray continued.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer echoed Murray: “I want my Republican colleagues to listen closely: Senate Democrats will not support a DHS bill unless it reins in ICE and ends the violence.”

“We will know soon enough if our colleagues understand the stakes, if they understand how serious we are,” Schumer continued. “I hope Republicans get serious, or they will learn once again, they will not have our votes.”

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a Republican appropriator, told NOTUS that “a lot” of Democrats’ requests “are nonstarters.”

“We’ll figure out what they are actually being serious about,” Mullin said.

Some Republicans have their own proposals they want added to the DHS bill. Sens. Lindsey Graham and Mike Rounds have said they want to address sanctuary cities.

“I think it’s only fair that if you’re going to open this thing up and start talking about that, that we get into what actually is causing this problem in the first place, and a lot of it is local units of government that are flaunting federal law,” Rounds told reporters before the vote Friday.

The Senate was expected to vote for the funding package on Thursday night, but Graham blocked movement in the chamber. He demanded votes on the “Arctic Frost” provision — a House-backed clause repealing a law allowing senators to sue the government if their electronic records were unknowingly seized by former special counsel Jack Smith — as well as a bill to ban sanctuary cities.

“I am willing to lift my hold. I am willing to vote ‘yes.’ I actually like the product. I’m asking for two things,” Graham said Friday morning, threatening to hold the Senate floor all night if he didn’t get commitment for the two votes.

The Arctic Frost vote can happen whenever it reasonably fits into the amendment process, Graham told reporters, but “the sanctuary city vote has to be next week when we take up DHS.” Graham ended up voting for the appropriations deal.

“I feel good,” he said after the vote. “I think we have a debate worthy of the country. They want some changes to ICE, I’m open minded. We’ll never fix this problem until we deal with the sanctuary city issue, so that’s a debate worth having.”

The revised legislation now heads back to the House for final passage before it can go to the president’s desk.

On Thursday evening, House Speaker Mike Johnson told USA Today that the earliest the House could vote on the package would be Monday. But with government funding running out on Friday at midnight, “We may inevitably be in a short shutdown situation,” Johnson said.

“But the House is going to do its job,” he continued.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said “we’ll evaluate” whether two weeks is “sufficient time” to negotiate a full DHS funding bill.

“There’s urgency to dealing with this issue, because ICE, as we’ve seen, is out of control, and the American people know it,” Jeffries said at a press conference Friday morning.

After the vote Schumer said while the bill “was negotiated in the Senate,” he and Jeffries “agreed on two weeks” as the duration of the short-term DHS funding bill.

Some senators were optimistic about the package’s prospects in the House.

“The House will pass it overwhelmingly,” Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal said. “I’ve talked to a number of House members, and I think there will be a strong bipartisan showing.”

“It’s gonna be hard, but let’s get to it,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, another Republican appropriator, said after the vote.

Some, not so much.

“Nothing in the Senate is easy,” Republican Sen. Jerry Moran told NOTUS. “Everything in the House is even more difficult.”

This story was updated with new information.