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The Senate passed a package funding huge chunks of the federal government through September but setting a two-week stopwatch on the expiration of Homeland Security funding.
After a day of haggling with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., over his priorities, Senate Majority Leader John Thune locked in a deal to vote on five spending bills as well as the stopgap DHS bill on Friday afternoon. It passed, 71-29.
The House is expected to come back early next week to take up the Senate deal, which includes five spending bills but stripped out a bipartisan bill funding DHS until September and replaced it with a two-week bill. Democrats insisted they would not vote to fund DHS without a debate over immigration enforcement following the killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
The back-and-forth will result in at least a short government shutdown; funding for large swaths of the government expires on Saturday and the House likely won’t approve it until Monday at the earliest. Still, the deal is supported by President Donald Trump and leaders in both parties and takes the threat of a lengthier shutdown off the table.
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A future shutdown of DHS is possible, although leaders could also pass more stopgap bills. The Trump administration has billions in immigration enforcement funding from last year’s tax cuts law regardless of whether DHS is shutdown or not, but other agencies like TSA and the Coast Guard would be affected by a funding lapse. Democrats want to add accountability measures to immigration enforcement and require body cameras and end the use of masks by agents.
Graham said Thune agreed to his demands for a vote on ending sanctuary cities on the next DHS funding bill and a response to a Biden-era FBI probe into senators’ phone records around Jan. 6.
“I need to have a seat at the table, not an outcome. I’m not insisting you adopt sanctuary city changes. I’m insisting I have a vote,” Graham told reporters Friday.