Congress

No off-ramp in sight for DHS-fueled shutdown

Published

5 months ago

January 27, 2026

Washington is charging toward a partial government shutdown over President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda even as senators and the White House scramble to find an elusive off-ramp.

Democrats, Republicans and the White House each say they want to avoid another costly lapse in government funding. But Saturday’s killing of a 37-year-old Minnesota man by federal agents has badly complicated the approach pattern for a massive six-bill appropriations package that the Senate planned to approve this week.

In the wake of the Minnesota shooting, Democrats want Republicans to join them in stripping out funding for the Department of Homeland Security from the sprawling package. Yet any changes would require further action in the House, which is out of town until Monday — after a shutdown would start at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.

Republicans are dangling alternatives that would avoid having to change the massive bill, including potential executive actions or an agreement to pass a separate piece of legislation. But Democrats believe they have leverage as Americans recoil at Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement tactics in Minnesota and elsewhere.

The captured-on-video killing of Alex Pretti has sparked public unease even from Trump allies in Congress and fueled new questions about how the administration is enacting its agenda, putting intense pressure on Democrats to dig in and fight.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday that the “responsibility to prevent a partial government shutdown” lies in the hands of Majority Leader John Thune and his fellow Senate Republicans. He called on them to agree to strip out and renegotiate the DHS bill while allowing the rest of the package — which would fund nearly three-quarters of annual agency spending — to be passed into law.

As recently as Friday, enough senators were expected to help pass the full set of funding bills, which was negotiated over the course of months by bipartisan appropriators. Now, according to a person granted anonymity to disclose private discussions, Democrats are quickly “coalescing” around a number of changes they want to the DHS bill, which won only seven Democratic votes in the House.

Those include requiring judicial warrants for immigration arrests, overruling a recently disclosed ICE memo asserting they are not required. Other potential Democratic amendments would mandate federal agents identify themselves, require DHS to cooperate with state and local investigations and limit the “mission creep of federal agencies.”

Despite the concern that has emerged within the GOP ranks after Saturday’s shooting, Republicans are moving forward with the six-bill package as currently drafted, taking a first step Monday to put it on the floor. Senators are expected to take an initial vote Thursday, when at least eight Democrats will be needed to leap a 60-vote hurdle.

Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) told reporters Monday that she did not favor removing the DHS bill from the six-bill package but that there are ongoing discussions about “further reforms or procedural protections.”

“My hope is that we’re not going to get to that point, that everyone would recognize that a government shutdown is extremely harmful and should be avoided,” Collins said when asked about the prospects for a partial shutdown.

Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), who leads the Appropriations subcommittee dealing with DHS and met with Collins Monday, also told reporters the Senate should pass the funding package as is but that there could be actions taken “within the purview of the administration” to address Democrats’ concerns.

Some lawmakers and aides held out hope that some of Trump’s moves Monday, which included sending border czar Tom Homan to oversee the Minnesota enforcement surge, would soften the ground for a possible deal. Others were encouraged that lines of communications remained open between the parties early in the week.

Republicans are facing their own internal pressures as they seek to avoid a shutdown. A group of conservatives, including Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), is vowing to oppose any effort to strip out DHS funding. And because the Senate is locked in a time crunch with the Friday midnight deadline looming, any one senator can block an attempt to quickly amend the legislation.

At the same time, there are some Democratic qualms about pushing agencies to the brink less than three months after ending a record 43-day shutdown fought over health care. Some are noting that ICE and Border Patrol will continue to be funded in any case through the GOP megabill enacted last year while other DHS agencies such as FEMA and TSA would be subject to the shutdown.

But so far Democrats are insisting that Republicans agree to rewrite the bill. Democrats are skeptical that the administration can be trusted to take executive action or that standalone legislation reining in DHS would ever make it through the House.

“My options are to do nothing or to recognize that two U.S. citizens were recently … executed by federal agents,” Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) told reporters Monday. “We need to at least bring some level of pressure on DHS or on our Republican colleagues to explain to the American public why we are going to continue funding this without any changes.”

Even sending an amended bill back to the House would carry the risk of an extended standoff. One senior House Republican granted anonymity said that would open a new “hellscape” in the funding talks, with the fractious GOP conference divided over the way forward.

“Democrats already had a say in DHS funding during the bipartisan negotiations that occurred on each and every individual appropriations bill,” said a House GOP aide granted anonymity to speak candidly about the dynamics. “If they renege on the agreement on any of these bipartisan bills, then it would open a bigger can of worms.”

Privately, many Republicans on Capitol Hill believe that any off-ramp to be found before Friday night’s deadline will need to come from the White House, according to two people granted anonymity to disclose private thinking.

But the administration said Monday it wants to see the six-bill package passed as written — without the DHS funding separated out.

“Policy discussions on immigration in Minnesota are happening,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, adding that those talks “should not be at the expense of government funding for the American people.”

Speaker Mike Johnson’s leadership circle is still weighing options as the partial shutdown looms. While some Senate Democrats are calling on the House to cut its one-week break short and reconvene, there are no plans to bring the chamber back early, according to three people granted anonymity to comment on private planning.

While GOP leaders plan for now to bring the House back next Monday as scheduled, some rank-and-file Republicans are wary that Johnson might re-run his strategy from the last shutdown and keep the House out even longer in a bid to jam the Senate.

Congress

Congressional Black Caucus blasts Slotkin over her calls for new leadership in the House

Published

6 hours ago

June 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Congressional Black Caucus is emphatically declaring its support for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — and denouncing Sen. Elissa Slotkin’s call for new leadership in Congress.

In a statement posted to social media on Friday, the entirely Democratic CBC declared that it stands united behind the nation’s first Black minority leader of the House. The caucus accused the Michigan senator of “posturing for higher office in 2028” and called attention to her votes to approve multiple members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet.

“House Democrats don’t need a lesson on reading the political moment from someone who handed Donald Trump one of the most corrupt Cabinets in American history,” the CBC said. “Voting to confirm Kristi Noem, Pam Bondi, and five other Trump Cabinet secretaries is not the posture of someone who understood the moment’ after 2024.”

The CBC closed its defense of Jeffries with a sharp parting shot of remaining focused on providing for Americans rather than “engaging in distractions that only serve to divide Democrats at a moment when unity and resolve are essential.”

A spokesperson for Slotkin, who has repeatedly called for a new generation of leadership in Congress, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Congress

Key Democrats urge House to reject kids’ safety proposal

Published

9 hours ago

June 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Commerce Committee’s top Democrat Maria Cantwell (Wash.) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) warned House lawmakers against advancing their chamber’s version of the Kids Online Safety Act, arguing it would face intense lobbying from tech companies in the Senate and risk unraveling years of bipartisan work.

“If it is passed by the House it will come to the Senate,” Blumenthal, the bill’s Senate cosponsor, told reporters at a Friday press briefing. The Connecticut Democrat said he is concerned senators will be influenced by the tech industry’s “armies of lawyers and lobbyists” who may “confuse and exploit” misunderstandings about a House bill with the same name as a Senate version but excludes key provisions, such as the “duty of care.” (This concept requires online companies to design social media platforms with an eye for children’s safety.)

“We’re not going to let bad legislation with a good title just get across and think somebody’s done something,” Cantwell said.

The House version of KOSA — which is included in the KIDS Act, a revised bipartisan package that the Energy and Commerce Committee advanced along party lines in March — is scheduled to be considered on the House floor next week under suspension of the rules.

“We need to stop this bill in the House, and we need to prevent the White House from forming an alliance with Big Tech on this issue,” said Blumenthal, who characterized the version of KOSA that House leadership is pushing as a “sham.”

Both Democratic lawmakers also expressed concern that Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) could adopt the House version of KOSA in a kids’ safety package he has yet to publicly release but has pledged to markup by August recess. Cruz said “negotiations are ongoing” earlier this week when asked by Blue Light News whether he would be open to incorporating such changes put forward in the House.

Cruz’s package is expected to include KOSA as well legislation barring companies from using minors’ personal data for targeted advertising, banning kids under age 13 from social media, and providing greater oversight for how children interact with AI chatbots.

Although Blumenthal remains hopeful that Cruz will “stay true to his first vote in favor of KOSA,” which overwhelmingly passed in the Senate last Congress, the Connecticut Democrat said Friday he’s worried Cruz and others may be tempted to “take the bait” and abandon the bill’s basic principles.

Congress

Moderates beware: Mamdani coalition portends a dramatically different Democratic Party in NYC

Published

13 hours ago

June 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

NEW YORK — A coalition powered by Mayor Zohran Mamdani expanded the left’s reach Tuesday, winning younger voters across racial and ethnic lines and once again upending conventional wisdom about elections in New York City.

A series of hotly contested congressional and state elections pit a slate of Mamdani-backed democratic socialists and progressives against establishment candidates who, in several cases, differed little on policy aside from U.S.-Israel relations.

The results were staggering.

Midterm election cycles in deep-blue New York City tend to be sleepy affairs. Both this year and in 2022, just over 500,000 people cast ballots, less than 20 percent of eligible voters. But turnout within a congressional district spanning Upper Manhattan and the Bronx increased by roughly 50 percent between 2022 and Tuesday, with more than 66,000 voters heading to the polls.

In another seat covering parts of Brooklyn and Queens, turnout more than doubled from 2022, though state and federal elections were held on different days that year and the seat was not competitive, which would have reduced the number of voters going to the polls.

Congressional candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America were able to replicate the mayor’s success by winning younger Latino voters in Brooklyn and a majority of Black voters in Harlem. Combined with the DSA’s base in relatively wealthy neighborhoods, the result charted the far left’s broadening appeal and a potential reorientation of the electorate that will influence races for years to come.

“This was a big wave for DSA and they did a good job capitalizing on it,” said Evan Roth Smith, a pollster with Slingshot Strategies. “The question now is: Was this a wave cycle that will abate, or is it the start of the takeover?”

Much of Mamdani’s base is concentrated in the so-called “commie-corridor,” a series of neighborhoods along the Brooklyn-Queens waterfront filled with young, educated and affluent voters who’ve propelled several DSA candidates into office. They went gaga over Mamdani’s candidacy and, as Tuesday’s results show, will turn out for candidates he supports.

The area was crucial to Assemblymember Claire Valdez’s crushing 56-38 defeat of Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.

“The factor that felt most significant to me were all of these New Yorkers who got activated and politicized in the mayor’s race last year who were looking for the next fight,” said Andrew Epstein, a political adviser to Mamdani who worked on Valdez’ campaign. “Those people didn’t go away. And they want to keep going.”

Valdez also won several heavily Latino areas that were expected to break for her opponent.

Reynoso was born in Brooklyn to Dominican parents and just a few years ago was a City Council member representing Bushwick, a long-gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood that’s home to Latino families and young hipsters. Valdez was born in Texas, moved to New York City in 2015 and served in the state Assembly for just one term before launching her Mamdani-backed bid for retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez’s seat.

She ended up winning areas of Bushwick by even greater margins than the total results — in some election districts winning upwards of 80 percent of the vote.

“You don’t win the district by 35 points if you don’t have broad advantages across age and demographic groups,” said Michael Lange, an election analyst and Mamdani supporter who has tracked several contested races with extreme granularity. “Is she blowing him out of the water with Hispanic voters under 50? I see tons of evidence that the answer is yes.”

The age advantage was the common thread across several other races.

In Upper Manhattan and the Bronx, for example, younger Black voters in Harlem were key to Darializa Avila Chevalier’s win over Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus who had built a small political empire in the district.

While gentrifying, the neighborhood remains a seat of Black political power and is home to younger households who tend to rent. That particular demographic is a strong indicator of why Mamdani won the area in 2025, even as he lost the Black vote overall to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose support was concentrated among older Black homeowners in Brooklyn and Queens.

While Espaillat never healed a rift with the Black community in upper Manhattan opened during his election in 2016, which contributed to his weak performance, Avila Chevalier demonstrated Tuesday that a significant share of voters there were not just supportive of Mamdani the person, but of the broader political movement he’s now leading.

Overall, she edged out Espaillat with Black voters 48-46, according to an analysis from The New York Times, which charted demographic breakdowns for several contested races.

Three winning congressional candidates endorsed by Mamdani — including former city Comptroller Brad Lander in Brooklyn, who unseated incumbent Dan Goldman — share several similarities. They won younger, college-educated and wealthier voters by huge margins, in several cases by 30 points or more, and lost lower-income voters to incumbents or candidates affiliated with incumbents — a sign that the movement seeking to boost struggling New Yorkers has not won them over.

While the DSA was able to win three state races without the support of Mamdani — a testament to the organizing prowess of the left that was essential to reactivating the mayor’s coalition — there were limits to the city’s leftward shift.

Rep. Grace Meng won her reelection race, though she only vanquished challenger Chuck Park by 14 points, an uncomfortable margin for an incumbent of her stature. Park, who ran to Meng’s left, was boosted by a huge turnout in Woodside, Queens, a multiethnic neighborhood that went heavily for Mamdani in last year’s mayoral race.

Elsewhere in the Bronx, however, incumbents remained strong. Rep. Ritchie Torres handily won reelection with 72 percent of the vote, though it was a low-turnout affair more consistent with an uncompetitive midterm. Nevertheless, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries touted the results — even as he watched a series of his endorsed candidates fall to the DSA in Brooklyn, his home borough, in a preview of the intraparty battles to come.

“In some higher-income districts, there was an outsized focus on the Middle East. In other districts, for instance, in the South Bronx, Ritchie Torres ran against somebody who was heavily critical of his position on Israel, and he won by fifty points,” Jeffries told MS NOW on Wednesday.