The Senate has passed a last-minute deal to limit a government shutdown to just the weekend.
The vote on Friday comes after Senate Democrats and Republicans struck a deal to pass a funding package to fund most of the government with a decisive 71-29 vote. The deal included a two-week Band-Aid to fund the Department of Homeland Security as the two parties dig in on overhauling U.S. immigration and Customs Enforcement amid nationwide protests to the agency’s brutal tactics.
Most federal agencies will stay funded through September, but Democrats refused to give DHS a full-year allocation. Their demand comes after high-profile killings of American citizens in Minneapolis by immigration agents, sparking fierce calls for ICE and Customs and Border Protection reforms.
The House will vote on the package Monday, meaning a brief weekend shutdown kicks off Saturday for multiple agencies, including Defense, State, and Treasury.
Democrats plan to use the two weeks to push ICE, including body cameras and warrant requirements. Republican skeptics like Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) predicted talks would have “all of the substance and efficiency of an eighth-grade car wash.”
“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,” Kennedy 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.”
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