Congress
Senators block funding package amid DHS standoff
Eight Republicans joined every Senate Democrat to block sweeping government funding legislation from advancing Thursday amid ongoing negotiations around a potential offramp to avert a lengthy shutdown of several agencies.
The Senate voted 55-45 against moving forward with a six-bill package that would fund, among other things, the departments of Homeland Security, State and Health and Human Services, as well as the Pentagon.
The measure accounts for more than 75 percent of discretionary spending across the federal government, and programs relying on this money will shutter if Congress cannot reach a deal by 12:01 a.m. Saturday.
The House already passed these bills, then left town for recess. The Senate was on track to clear them without much drama. But then came last weekend’s killing in Minneapolis of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, at the hands of Border Patrol agents.
The incident has fueled new scrutiny of the administration’s immigration enforcement activities, including from some of President Donald Trump’s more reliable GOP allies on Capitol Hill.
Democrats now say they will oppose advancing the funding measure as long as funding for DHS is included — or until Republicans agree to legislation that would put new guardrails around ICE.
The current DHS bill would reduce the agency’s budget for enforcement and removal efforts but also hand ICE $10 billion for the remainder of the fiscal year. It would require DHS to use $20 million to outfit immigration enforcement agents with body cameras, direct the department to give officers more training on defusing conflict while interacting with the public and provide a separate $20 million for independent oversight of DHS detention facilities.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said ahead of the vote Thursday that Democrats remain ready to pass the other five funding bills included in the package as he engages in discussions with the White House on what further changes could be made to the DHS bill to address Democrats’ concerns.
The New York Democrat said “strong legislation to rein in ICE” is necessary.
“Congress has to step up to the plate,” Schumer added. “The Republican majority must step up to the plate.”
Democrats across Congress want rules tightened around the use of warrants and identification of DHS agents conducting immigration enforcement operations, among other things.
Many of Democrats’ requests for changing the DHS bill were pursued earlier in the process at the committee level, but didn’t have the support to make it into the bipartisan and bicameral compromise package.
Republicans and Democrats are talking, according to a person granted anonymity to speak freely, but a deal is not done.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in an interview Thursday before the doomed procedural vote that he believed the negotiations were “trending in the right direction.”
After the vote went down, Thune moved to lay the groundwork to quickly bring the package back up if Democrats and the White House can a deal. He voted “no” to give himself the option to force reconsideration later.
Republican Sens. Ted Budd of North Carolina, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Rick Scott and Ashley Moody of Florida were the other GOP lawmakers who voted “no.” Some are seeking a potential opportunity to reshape the Department of Homeland Security funding bill; others are looking to secure further spending cuts.
Ultimately, Congress appears likely to barrel over the shutdown cliff for at least some amount of time, as the House is out of town until Monday and hard-liners in that chamber have already vowed to complicate leadership’s ability to pass the funding bills a second time. House GOP leaders are set to meet later Thursday to discuss options, two people familiar with the private deliberations said.
The other person granted anonymity to share details of private party dynamics said Democrats could be willing to shore up the votes for a short-term spending patch — as long as it is very brief for the sole purpose of allowing more time to close out negotiations on a new DHS bill.
Senate Republicans believe the administration is open to making changes to the House-passed DHS measure in the wake of the backlash over Pretti’s death. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins also announced Thursday morning that Homeland Security Secretary Krisi Noem had informed her that ICE had ended its enhanced operations in Maine at the Republican lawmaker’s request — another sign the White House could be ready to cooperate.
Members of both parties want to move quickly. Though the congressional fight has been focused on immigration enforcement activities, the DHS bill also would fund the Coast Guard, FEMA, TSA and other critical agencies through Sept. 30.
Some Democrats had raised concerns in particular about FEMA funding as a significant swath of the country continues to recover from a widespread winter storm from this past weekend.
Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.
Sen. Ron Johnson is sending a letter Monday requesting a conference meeting to discuss the midterm results and a delay in the leadership election.
Johnson has gathered enough signatures to force the meeting under the Senate GOP’s rules and is proposing the gathering for 9 a.m. Tuesday.
“Tuesday’s result was a stunning defeat,” Johnson and his backers write in the letter to Conference Chair Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO. “Holding leadership elections without engaging in a robust discussion and evaluation of how those running for leadership intend to lead would be political malpractice”
Republicans still expect their leadership election to be held Tuesday, where Majority Leader John Thune is so far unopposed to lead the party next year in the minority.
Sen. Chris Murphy announced Friday that he has been released from the hospital after suffering a stroke last week, but will miss “several weeks” of Senate votes while he continues to recover.
“The doctors are very encouraged by the progress I’ve made so far,” the Connecticut Democrat said in a statement. “In order to take my recovery seriously and get back to work on the quickest timeline possible, I will be spending several weeks at a rehabilitation center after being discharged from the hospital today.”
He added that he remains in touch remotely with his staff and colleagues.
Murphy, who was hospitalized last weekend, said Friday that he was “diagnosed with a small bleed in the thalamus region of my brain.” Jose Suarez, the Chief of Neurosciences Critical Care at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, said in a separate statement released by Murphy’s office that the senator “experienced a small hemorrhagic stroke.”
“He has shown tremendous progress, and at the current rate of improvement, we expect that he will make a full recovery following rehabilitation,” Suarez added.
Murphy is the latest senator to suffer a stroke in recent years. Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) were both hospitalized for strokes in 2022. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), at that time a Senate candidate, also had a stroke in 2022 that he later described as near fatal.
The head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus said his group will still be power brokers in a massive Democratic majority in a strategy memo previewing plans for next term.
“While some in the press have speculated that a majority of this size undermines our influence within the caucus, they have it exactly backwards,” Rep. Greg Casar of Texas said in the Friday memo obtained by Blue Light News. “Big majorities are good for getting big things done. Our goal is not to win a battle against other Democratic caucuses. It is to pass longstanding progressive priorities that bring down costs, root out corruption, and boost wages.”
The CPC will have at least 105 members next term, according to the memo. If Democrats had a narrow majority, progressives — and any other faction in the caucus — could have used their votes as leverage. Now that presumptive speaker Hakeem Jeffries will have as many 30 votes to spare, Democrats broadly are recalibrating their approach next term.
Casar laid out a “three-pronged” strategy for the CPC to “wield our power” in the three-page memo — tackling legislation, oversight and “holding Donald Trump to his word on populist economic policies.”
“Small majorities give corporate special interest groups the ability to block popular populist policies by recruiting a small number of opponents; a big majority gives us the advantage,” he said.
Casar previewed how the CPC can engage with Trump, noting that “one of the few bright spots for bipartisan lawmaking” was a housing bill that banned private equity firms from buying homes. He noted the caucus should push Trump to cap credit card interest rates, lower credit card fees for small businesses and lower prescription drug costs.
“While we oppose [Trump] strongly on the vast majority of fronts, we should send bills to his desk that would lower prices and raise paychecks. If he signs them, good. If he vetoes those bills, that will propel us to a continued Democratic majority and a trifecta where a Democratic president can sign these proposals into law,” he said.
Casar also outlined oversight targets beyond the administration, urging Democrats to specifically investigate corporations that use customer data for “surveillance pricing,” health care companies that are “taking advantage of seniors” through the Medicare Advantage program and artificial intelligence labs who are “putting jobs and lives at risk.”
“By focusing not just on the Trump administration but also on big corporations and billionaires, we will show the American people we are not just anti-Trump but also pro-worker and pro-consumer,” he said.
-
Politics1 year agoJohn Legend advises Trump to drop the ‘dictator s‑‑‑’ if he wants Nobel Peace Prize
-
Politics2 years agoFormer ‘Squad’ members launching ‘Bowman and Bush’ YouTube show
-
Uncategorized2 years ago
Bob Good to step down as Freedom Caucus chair this week
-
The Josh Fourrier Show2 years agoDOOMSDAY: Trump won, now what?
-
The Dictatorship2 years agoPete Hegseth’s tenure at the Pentagon goes from bad to worse
-
Politics2 years agoFormer Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron launches Senate bid
-
The Dictatorship2 years agoLuigi Mangione acknowledges public support in first official statement since arrest
-
Politics2 years agoBlue Light News’s Editorial Director Ryan Hutchins speaks at Blue Light News’s 2025 Governors Summit