Senate’s bipartisan deal to avoid a partial shutdown appears back on track but voting uncertain
WASHINGTON (AP) — After fiery public speeches Friday from Republicans railing against the deal President Donald Trump struck with Democrats, senators appeared back on track rushing to resolve their differences and start voting on the bipartisan agreement to avoid a federal government shutdown.
Democrats are demanding new restrictions on federal immigration raids across the country, in the wake of the deaths of two protesters at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis. Under the deal they struck with Trump, the homeland security funding would be separated out, for two weeks, from the broader government spending bill, giving Congress time to debate changes to the department’s operations. Trump said he didn’t want a shutdown and encouraged members of both parties to cast a “much needed Bipartisan ‘YES’ vote.”
But the deal was thrown into doubt late Thursday and into Friday as key Republicans, including Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, pushed back, warning that Republicans should not give away too much on the issues around Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.
“To the Republican party, where have you been?” Graham of South Carolina, said in a speech on the Senate floor. ICE agents and Border patrol agents have been “slandered and smeared.”
The standoff roused other Republicans to demand changes that Senate leaders were rushing to handle before the midnight deadline when government funds expire.
Even if the Senate can finish its work, the bill heads next to the House, which is not due back until Monday. That means the government could be in a partial shutdown temporarily over the weekend.
The Trump administration is expected to issue guidance to federal agencies on how to proceed.
Leaders try to nail down votes
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Friday morning that “time was of the essence” as they tried to rein in the Trump administration immigration operations, but also ensure government is not shuttered.
“The abuses of ICE have to come to an end,” Schumer said.
Democrats have laid out several demands, asking the White House to “end roving patrols” in cities and coordinate with local law enforcement on immigration arrests, including requiring tighter rules for warrants.
They also want an enforceable code of conduct so agents are held accountable when they violate rules. Schumer said agents should be required to have “masks off, body cameras on” and carry proper identification, as is common practice in most law enforcement agencies.
But Republicans are countering with their own demands, including restrictions on so-called “Sanctuary Cities” that they say do not do enough to enforce illegal immigration.
All of that is expected to be debated later, in the weeks ahead. Under the terms of the deal, government funding for homeland security would expire again in two weeks, a built-in deadline for Congress to try to find consensus on the immigration operations.
And it’s not just immigration and deportation issues at stake.
Graham has also opposed the House action that repeals a new law giving senators the ability to sue the government for millions of dollars if their personal or office data is accessed without their knowledge — as happened to him and other senators as part of the so-called Arctic Frost investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 attack by Trump supporters at the Capitol.
Rare bipartisan talks
The unusual bipartisan talks between Trump and Schumer, his frequent adversary, came after the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minnesota last weekend and calls by senators in both parties for a full investigation. Schumer called it “a moment of truth.”
“What ICE is doing, outside the law, is state-sanctioned thuggery and it must stop,” Schumer said. “Congress has the authority — and the moral obligation — to act.”
The standoff has threatened to plunge the country into another shutdown, just two months after Democrats blocked a spending bill over expiring federal health care subsidies. That dispute closed the government for 43 days as Republicans refused to negotiate.
That shutdown ended when a small group of moderate Democrats broke away to strike a deal with Republicans. But Democrats are more unified this time after the fatal shootings of Pretti and Renee Good by federal agents.
Republicans were more willing to make a deal, as well. Several said that after those shootings, they were open to new restrictions.
Still far apart on immigration policy
If the deal moves forward, negotiations down the road on a final agreement on the DHS bill are likely to be difficult.
Democrats want Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown to end. “If the Trump administration resists reforms, we shut down the agency,” said Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
Republicans are unlikely to agree to all of the Democrats’ demands.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C, said he is opposed to requiring immigration enforcement officers to show their faces, even as he blamed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for decisions that he said are “tarnishing” the agency’s reputation.
“You know, there’s a lot of vicious people out there, and they’ll take a picture of your face, and the next thing you know, your children or your wife or your husband are being threatened at home,” Tillis said.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., criticized what he called Democrats’ “woke wish list of so-called ICE ‘reforms.’”
“Now, more than EVER, we need to let our police officers know that we have their backs—not burden them with some new protocols that could slow their progress on DEPORTING CRIMINALS,” Tuberville posted on X.
Uncertainty in the House
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has said he is opposed to breaking up the funding package, but “if it is broken up, we will have to move it as quickly as possible. We can’t have the government shut down.”
At a Kennedy Center evening premiere of a movie about first lady Melania Trump, Johnson said late Thursday he might have some “tough decisions” to make about when to bring the House back to Washington to approve the bills separated by the Senate, if they pass.
House Republicans have said they do not want any changes to their bill.
“The package will not come back through the House without funding for the Department of Homeland Security,” members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus wrote Trump.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters that any change in the homeland bill needs to be “meaningful and it needs to be transformative.”
Absent “dramatic change,” Jeffries said, “Republicans will get another shutdown.”
___
Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Stephen Groves, Joey Cappelletti, Seung Min Kim, Michelle L. Price and Darlene Superville contributed to this report.