Congress
Capitol agenda: Senate heads into doomed DHS votes
A DHS shutdown is coming Friday night, and there’s no telling how long it could last.
The White House on Wednesday night sent Congress the legislative text of its immigration enforcement counterproposal, a White House official and two people granted anonymity to disclose the private action told Blue Light News. But key Democrats have already said they don’t believe the administration is serious enough about reigning in the immigration agencies, all but guaranteeing a funding lapse despite the text exchange.
— State of play: Senators are headed into doomed DHS appropriations votes Thursday. Majority Leader John Thune teed up a vote to advance the House-passed DHS bill. Once that inevitably fails, Republicans plan to try to pass at least one continuing resolution, according to two people granted anonymity to discuss unannounced plans.
“It doesn’t look like we’re going to stick the landing … so we’ll have to go to Plan B,” Thune told reporters Wednesday evening.
Republicans want another stopgap that lasts between four to six weeks, but haven’t made a final decision about what they will try to clear Thursday. But they’d need Senate Democrats to advance any such measure, and the minority party said Wednesday they had no interest in cooperating on a stopgap.
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer declared Democrats won’t support a CR after refusing to rule one out throughout the week. Other Democrats whose votes would likely be necessary — Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen of Nevada — told Blue Light News Wednesday they won’t back a funding patch either.
“ICE is shutting down until we put guardrails,” Rosen said. “ICE should be acting with the same rules, uniform code of conduct, like the FBI and our state and local police … We are just asking what every other law enforcement agency abides by.”
ICE is among the DHS agencies that would be least affected by a shutdown. That’s because it receives a combination of mandatory funds, revenue from fees and billions of dollars from the GOP megabill President Donald Trump signed into law in 2025.
— Why a shutdown could drag: Congress is in recess next week, and several senators are eager to get out of town today to make it to the Munich Security Conference or to campaign in their home states — regardless of the state of DHS talks.
“I’m going to go home and I’m packing for Munich and I’m packing for Alaska,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said. “That’s my plan and I’m sticking to it.”
Once the shutdown starts, it could take weeks for the public to notice, giving lawmakers time before public pressure ramps up to end the standoff.
TSA screeners, for example, would miss their first full paychecks mid-March, leading to a gradual increase in wait times for travelers during the peak of spring break. FEMA has enough funds — about $7 billion — to buoy the agency for at least a month or two during a shutdown.
DHS officials could also pay active-duty Coast Guard members for several months using a pot of money from the 2025 megabill, which was replenished after last year’s shutdown ended. The Secret Service also received money from the legislation that it could tap in the event of a shutdown.
“It does take the public a longer time to figure it out,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) told Blue Light News Wednesday. “[But] I don’t know that the length of this, if there is a shutdown, is going to be based on how long it takes people to feel the effect. I think it’s more going to be governed by when we can find the reforms that are sufficient to people’s concerns.”
What else we’re watching:
— Rosen’s Epstein resolution: Rosen is introducing a resolution Thursday that would force senators to go on the record over whether President Donald Trump should grant clemency to Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime associate.
If the resolution passes, it would be nonbinding but symbolically significant in declaring the Senate’s official position against a pardon or clemency for Maxwell, even as her attorney has dangled such a step in exchange for her testimony.
— Notable hearings: It’s the Senate Homeland Security panel’s turn to hear testimony from DHS officials, including Todd Lyons, acting director for ICE, at 9 a.m. The Senate Armed Services Committee will hear testimony from Defense Department officials on American drones at 9:30 a.m. And at 10 a.m., the crypto world will tune into SEC Chair Paul Atkins’ testimony in front of the Senate Banking Committee as the industry pushes for a revamp of financial regulations.
Jordain Carney, Myah Ward, Mia McCarthy and Declan Harty contributed to this report.
Congress
Minnesota AG: Feds still not cooperating on Pretti and Good investigations
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison told senators Thursday that federal law enforcement agencies are still blocking state and local authorities from participating in the investigations into the shootings of two U.S. citizens by immigration agents in Minneapolis.
“We haven’t had any cooperation up until now, which is very unusual, because in prior cases where there’s been a federal and state interest in a crime, we’ve seen collaboration between federal and state authorities,” Ellison told lawmakers on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Federal agents shot and killed two Americans — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — just days apart amid public protests over a major expansion of federal immigration enforcement in Minneapolis in December and January.
Ellison said that in the case of the shooting of 37-year-old Good in early January, state officials still haven’t had any access to the car she was driving when ICE officers shot and killed her, or the bullet casings.
Ellison said federal officials are not investigating the shootings and added: “We still haven’t received any access to the evidence that is involved in that case. … But we’re with good faith hoping that things will change.”
The FBI declined to comment. The Justice and Homeland Security Departments did not respond to requests for comment.
Ellison’s comments Thursday follow earlier protests from Minnesota officials that they were not being included in the federal investigations that followed the Good shooting. In the immediate aftermath of the killing, prosecutors had begun investigating Good’s widow as opposed to the officers, though that probe appears to have stopped after federal prosecutors resigned in protest.
Meanwhile, White House border czar Tom Homan said Thursday that the surge of thousands of immigration officers into Minneapolis will soon come to an end.
Democrats on the Homeland Security Committee said federal investigators need to be more transparent.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said he was “really concerned that the failure to provide this evidence” and collaborate with local law enforcement “in fact, amounts to a cover up.”
Congress
Senate Democrat aims to put members on record opposing Maxwell pardon
Sen. Jacky Rosen will introduce a resolution Thursday designed to put the Senate on record opposing the prospect of President Donald Trump granting a pardon or clemency to Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein who is currently in prison.
The Nevada Democrat, in a statement first shared with Blue Light News, said she wanted to “make sure the U.S. Senate sends a clear message to the White House that a convicted sex trafficker of minors should not receive any clemency.”
“If Leader Thune won’t bring this up for a recorded vote, I’ll do everything I can to try to bring this up for unanimous consent, as it’s my sincere hope we can all agree Ghislaine Maxwell should serve out her full sentence,” Rosen added.
Absent getting Republicans to allow a vote on her resolution, Rosen is discussing whether to try to approve it through a unanimous consent agreement after the Senate returns from next week’s scheduled recess.
Adoption would require an agreement from all 100 senators, however. And while there are Republicans who have clamored for more transparency in the Epstein case and accountability for Epstein’s co-conspirators, the measure would likely face at least one GOP objection. Though the Senate quickly cleared legislation last year to force the release of the Epstein files, Senate Republicans have batted down related follow-up efforts on the floor.
Though the resolution would be nonbinding, it would make the Senate’s official position against a pardon or clemency for Maxwell, which Republicans could see as boxing in Trump if he chooses that route.
The president has not ruled it out, and Rosen’s forthcoming resolution is expected to note that the president has refused to rule it out. It also is likely to quote Trump saying, in 2025, he is “allowed to do it, but it’s something [he has] not thought about.”
Maxwell’s attorneys have said his client will only testify under oath in exchange for clemency. Making good on that position, Maxwell invoked her Fifth Amendment right earlier this month when she appeared over video in a deposition, in compliance with a congressional subpoena, before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Congress
Justice Dems endorse Kat Abughazaleh in Illinois primary
Justice Democrats and the Peace, Accountability, and Leadership PAC, PAL PAC, have jointly endorsed progressive influencer Kat Abughazaleh in the hotly contested Democratic primary to replace Rep. Jan Schakowsky in Illinois.
In a statement, Justice Democrats executive director Alexandra Rojas described Abughazaleh as “the type of progressive leadership we need in Congress — leadership that isn’t too afraid to take on AIPAC or corporate PACs to defeat right-wing fascism or corporate corruption in the Democratic Party.”
Abughazaleh faces more than a dozen primary opponents in a March primary that’s turned into a national proxy fight. Last week, a newly formed super PAC, Elect Chicago Women, started airing ads backing state Sen. Laura Fine, and some of Fine’s opponents have accused the PAC of being funded by AIPAC.
Abughazaleh, who is Palestinian-American, has frequently criticized AIPAC and called Israel’s military operations in Gaza a genocide.
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