WASHINGTON — Most of the U.S. government shut down as the clock ticked over to Saturday, Jan. 31, but the funding lapse is expected to be brief.
The Senate passed legislation Friday evening that would fund the government, but the House is not in Washington, leading to the partial government shutdown this weekend.
The bill was the product of a deal between President Donald Trump and Senate Democratic leaders. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told members on a Friday call that he plans to hold a vote on it Monday, a source with knowledge of the matter said.
The funding lapse is not expected to have a significant practical impact, given that most federal employees don’t work during the weekend and Trump has vowed to quickly sign the package into law. But any unforeseen delay in the House could drag out the partial shutdown deeper into next week.
Among the agencies that will be temporarily shut down: the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration enforcement and has faced heavy criticism after two high-profile killings of American citizens in Minneapolis by immigration agents.
Others include the departments of Defense, State, Treasury, Transportation, Health and Human Services and Housing and Urban Development.
The Office of Management and Budget said in a memo Friday night that “affected agencies should now execute plans for an orderly shutdown,” adding: “It is our hope that this lapse will be short.”
Once passed through the House and signed into law, the Senate-passed bill will fund the government through the end of September, except for DHS. That department is funded for just two weeks, a demand by Democrats as they insist on changes to rein in Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.
The bipartisan deal came together after Democrats turned against a previously negotiated DHS measure following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by DHS agents, which caused an intense public outcry.
In a partial win for Democrats, Trump and GOP leaders acquiesced to their request to punt on DHS funding for two weeks. But it remains to be seen what policy changes they will agree to for ICE and CBP, as Democrats demand reforms.
Democrats plan to use the two weeks to negotiate changes such as ending “roving patrols,” tightening requirements for warrants to make arrests, imposing a code of conduct for immigration agents and forcing them to wear identification and body cameras.
“If Republicans are serious about the very reasonable demands Democrats have put forward on ICE, then there is no good reason we can’t come together very quickly to produce legislation. It should take less than two weeks,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Friday on the floor. “These are not radical demands. They’re basic standards the American people already expect from law enforcement.”
A DHS funding bill at the new Feb. 13 deadline will again require 60 Senate votes. Schumer warned Republicans after Friday’s vote, “If our colleagues are not willing to enact real change, they should not expect Democratic votes.”
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Some Republicans are skeptical that the talks will go well.
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“My prediction is that the next two weeks, with respect to the discussions about the so-called reforms of ICE, will have all of the substance and efficiency of an eighth grade car wash,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told reporters during the votes Friday. “I’m not going to vote for a bunch of so-called reforms that are designed to cripple ICE, nor do I think my Republican colleagues will. And I hope I’m wrong on this prediction, but what I smell coming is a long, long shutdown for DHS.”
The funding package passed after the Senate rejected a series of amendments demanded by senators.
In a sign of the shifting politics of immigration, Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, joined every Senate Democrat and independent to vote for an amendment offered by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to repeal the $75 billion in additional funding given to ICE under Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” last year. The amendment still failed 49-51.
Friday’s vote came after Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., blocked the Senate from moving quickly to pass the funding package on Thursday, characterizing it as a “bad deal.” The South Carolina Republican demanded a vote on his legislation to end so-called sanctuary cities, including making it illegal for state and local officials to impede or obstruct federal immigration enforcement.
On top of that, Graham was furious that the House had inserted in its funding package a repeal of his legislation to allow senators to sue the government if their phone records were subpoenaed in former special counsel Jack Smith’s “Arctic Frost” investigation. Graham was among eight Senate Republicans who would uniquely benefit from the legislation.
But, expecting a vote on his sanctuary cities bill in the next two weeks, he dropped his hold and the vote went forward.
Johnson expressed frustration that the Senate didn’t take up the six-bill package the House passed last week that included full-year funding for DHS. But with Trump throwing his support behind the Senate deal, Johnson had little choice but to put the package on the House floor for a vote.
“I’ve been very consistent and insistent that they should take the House’s bills that we sent over and negotiated very carefully in a bipartisan fashion and pass them,” Johnson told reporters Thursday, adding that any changes to DHS should be addressed separately from funding.
“The Homeland Security appropriations bill has much more than ICE; one of the things involved is FEMA,” the speaker added. “If everybody notices, we are in the middle of a winter storm situation and you can’t have these agencies unfunded or shut down — it’s a dangerous business.”
