Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security beyond Friday’s deadline, making a partial government shutdown all but inevitable.
The measure failed 52-47, falling short of the 60 votes required to advance under Senate rules.
Democrats opposed the legislation amid stalled negotiations with the White House over proposed restrictions on federal immigration enforcement agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.
As The Hill reports:
As a result, funding for key agencies such as the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Coast Guard will lapse on Saturday without further action from Congress.
The agencies that are the main targets of Democratic fury, however, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), will be able to continue operations without much disruption.
Both agencies received tens of billions of dollars through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Trump signed into law last year.
“Democrats have been very clear. We will not support an extension of the status quo, a status quo that permits masked secret police to barge into people’s homes without warrants, no guardrails, zero oversight from independent authorities,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said before the vote.
Lawmakers are expected to leave Washington on Thursday evening for a 10-day recess.
Funding for the Department of Homeland Security expires at midnight Friday.
Democrats continue to demand legislative changes to immigration enforcement — including judicial warrant requirements, body-worn cameras, officer identification, and use-of-force standards — before they will support DHS funding. They argue these are necessary reforms in light of recent controversial shootings by federal agents.
Republicans and the White House have been reluctant to agree to those far-reaching reforms, and talks have produced little progress.
The looming deadline adds urgency to stalled negotiations over DHS funding, with no agreement in place as lawmakers prepare to depart the nation’s capital.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
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Time to use the nuclear option and STOP bending over for the Democrats.
If the legislators take more time off we should just fire the lot of them and start over. They take more time off than many people, who they so liberally tax, get in 15 years. Our political system is all in a ruin.