{"id":18912,"date":"2026-02-12T13:01:49","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T13:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-senate-heads-into-doomed-dhs-votes\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T13:01:49","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T13:01:49","slug":"capitol-agenda-senate-heads-into-doomed-dhs-votes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-senate-heads-into-doomed-dhs-votes\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: Senate heads into doomed DHS votes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A DHS shutdown is coming Friday night, and there\u2019s no telling how long it could last.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t believe the administration is serious enough about reigning in the immigration agencies, all but guaranteeing a funding lapse despite the text exchange.<\/p>\n

\u2014 State of play: <\/b>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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t look like we\u2019re going to stick the landing \u2026 so we\u2019ll have to go to Plan B,\u201d Thune told reporters Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n

Republicans want another stopgap that lasts between four to six weeks, but haven\u2019t made a final decision about what they will try to clear Thursday. But they\u2019d need Senate Democrats to advance any such measure, and the minority party said Wednesday they had no interest in cooperating on a stopgap.<\/p>\n

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer declared Democrats won\u2019t support a CR after refusing to rule one out throughout the week. Other Democrats whose votes would likely be necessary \u2014 Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen of Nevada \u2014 told Blue Light News Wednesday they won\u2019t back a funding patch either.<\/p>\n

\u201cICE is shutting down until we put guardrails,\u201d Rosen said. \u201cICE should be acting with the same rules, uniform code of conduct, like the FBI and our state and local police \u2026 We are just asking what every other law enforcement agency abides by.\u201d<\/p>\n

ICE is among the DHS agencies that would be least affected by a shutdown. That\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Why a shutdown could drag: <\/b>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 \u2014 regardless of the state of DHS talks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to go home and I\u2019m packing for Munich and I\u2019m packing for Alaska,\u201d Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said. \u201cThat\u2019s my plan and I\u2019m sticking to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once the shutdown starts, it could take weeks<\/u><\/a> for the public to notice, giving lawmakers time before public pressure ramps up to end the standoff.<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 about $7 billion \u2014 to buoy the agency for at least a month or two during a shutdown.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s shutdown ended. The Secret Service also received money from the legislation that it could tap in the event of a shutdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does take the public a longer time to figure it out,\u201d Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) told Blue Light News Wednesday. \u201c[But] I don\u2019t 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\u2019s more going to be governed by when we can find the reforms that are sufficient to people\u2019s concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

What else we\u2019re watching:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u2014 Rosen\u2019s Epstein resolution: <\/b>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\u2019s longtime associate.<\/p>\n

If the resolution passes, it would be nonbinding but symbolically significant in declaring the Senate\u2019s official position against a pardon or clemency for Maxwell, even as her attorney has dangled such a step in exchange for her testimony.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Notable hearings: <\/b>It\u2019s 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\u2019 testimony<\/a> in front of the Senate Banking Committee as the industry pushes for a revamp of financial regulations.<\/p>\n

Jordain Carney, Myah Ward, Mia McCarthy and Declan Harty contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A DHS shutdown is coming Friday night, and there\u2019s 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18912\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}