The U.S. House will aim to pass a funding package Tuesday that would end the partial government shutdown while buying 10 more days for bipartisan negotiations over new accountability measures for immigration enforcement.
House Democrats have said they won’t help House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) kick off the process of considering the legislation, though some may vote for the final bill later this afternoon.
House Republicans believe they will be able to carry the measure on their own, despite complaints from some of the party’s hard-line conservatives. Nearly every GOP member will be necessary to advance it past a procedural hurdle if Democrats hold firm. Republicans have only a one-vote margin in the narrowly divided chamber.
“I’m confident that we’ll do it at least by Tuesday,” Johnson told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “Republicans are going to do the responsible thing and fund the government.”
The more than $1.2 trillion package would fund the Pentagon, the Departments of Labor, Treasury, Health and Human Services, Education, State and more through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
It would also temporarily fund the Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 13 in the hopes that lawmakers can negotiate new oversight policies for immigration agents — the result of a deal struck between Senate Democrats and the White House after immigration officials shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last month.
The Senate passed that deal on Friday, but portions of the government shut down early Saturday morning because the House was out of town and couldn’t approve it yet.
Some House conservatives initially signaled that they planned to oppose the package, in part because they believe the agreement undermines ICE’s efforts. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Florida) said she would not vote for it unless it included the SAVE Act, a bill that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote.
But Luna visited the White House Monday and said she and Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tennessee) would join the rest of the party in advancing the legislation, saying she believes there is a path forward for the voter ID legislation in the Senate.
President Donald Trump also posted on social media urging members to support the agreement.
“We need to get the Government open, and I hope all Republicans and Democrats will join me in supporting this Bill, and send it to my desk WITHOUT DELAY. There can be NO CHANGES at this time,” Trump wrote Monday. “We will work together in good faith to address the issues that have been raised, but we cannot have another long, pointless, and destructive Shutdown that will hurt our Country so badly — One that will not benefit Republicans or Democrats. I hope everyone will vote, YES!”
The whole federal government closed for 43 days last fall, the longest shutdown in U.S. history, as Democrats sought unsuccessfully to extend health care subsidies that expired at the end of the year.
House Democrats are split on the Homeland Security funding bill. Many have privately raised concerns that Senate negotiators won’t be able to achieve meaningful accountability measures, and some have said they would prefer if ICE is not funded this year, noting that the agency received $75 billion from last year’s Republican tax and spending law. (ICE would also be able to continue operating if it isn’t funded, drawing on that money.)
Others say keeping the agency funded for a short time is necessary if Democrats hope to achieve their goals of reining in ICE.
Senate Democrats have demanded that Republicans agree to require that immigration agents wear body cameras and identify themselves; get warrants for arrests; and adhere to a code of conduct similar to state and local law enforcement.
“I’ll take those 10 days and see what we can get. And if at the end of those 10 days we can’t decide to go with it, then it’s a no vote and the Department of Homeland Security is shuttered,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Connecticut), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, adding that the other funding bills are “good bills with good things for the people we care about.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) said the caucus will have a “full and robust” conversation about how they will vote on the funding bill Tuesday morning.
“ICE and the Department of Homeland Security need to dramatically change,” Jeffries told reporters Monday. “And absent that, then a full-year appropriations bill is in deep trouble.”
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