President Trump and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) reached an agreement Thursday on a deal to keep the government funded — but it likely won’t be approved in time to avert a partial shutdown.
The deal would strip funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from a six-bill package that cleared the House last week to keep a large swath of the government open through the end of the fiscal year.
A two-week extension for DHS, which oversees the federal law enforcement agencies handling the administration’s controversial immigration crackdown, will be provided under the terms of the deal.
“The separation of the five bipartisan bills the Democrats asked for, plus the two-week DHS [continuing resolution] has been agreed to,” Schumer said in a statement.
Trump urged lawmakers to move forward with the package, arguing that “the only thing that can slow our Country down is another long and damaging Government Shutdown.”
“I am working hard with Congress to ensure that we are able to fully fund the Government, without delay,” the president wrote on Truth Social.
“Republicans and Democrats in Congress have come together to get the vast majority of the Government funded until September, while at the same time providing an extension to the Department of Homeland Security (including the very important Coast Guard, which we are expanding and rebuilding like never before),” Trump continued.
“Hopefully, both Republicans and Democrats will give a very much needed Bipartisan ‘YES’ Vote.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters it “remains to be seen” whether the deal Schumer and the White House hammered out could be approved by the full upper chamber by Thursday night.
The House – which is out of session until Monday – would also need to vote on the measure to approve the changes to their version of the spending bill.
Funding lapses Friday at midnight for DHS and the other federal departments that are part of the deal – meaning a partial shutdown would occur between at least Saturday and Monday.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters Thursday that he was “vehemently opposed” to breaking up the funding package, but added, “If it is broken up, we will have to move it as quickly as possible.”
“We can’t have the government shut down.”
The two-week extension for DHS funding is expected to give lawmakers time to negotiate restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) practices – which some congressional lawmakers have demanded in the wake of the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, 37, by Border Patrol agents — the second anti-ICE agitator killed by a federal officer in Minneapolis since the start of Trump’s “Operation Metro Surge.”
Schumer has said a new DHS bill should include provisions forcing ICE agents to conduct removal operations with “masks off, body cameras on,” beef up rules for the use of warrants, create a unilateral code of conduct for federal agents and “end roving patrols” for deportees.
