Where government funding talks stand after the Minneapolis shooting

By Alison Main, Aileen Graef, CNN

(CNN) — The chance of several government agencies shutting down this week is growing, as Senate Democrats fall in line behind a commitment to reject a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security after another deadly shooting by a federal officer in Minneapolis.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Saturday evening that Democrats won’t provide a key package the 60 votes it needs to advance if it includes the current DHS funding measure, which he called “woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses of (Immigrations and Customs Enforcement).” ICE and Customs and Border Protection are part of DHS.

If the Senate fails to pass the legislation by midnight on Friday, then parts of the federal government will shut down, including the departments of Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development.

Though Schumer had previously dodged the question of whether his caucus would draw a hard line against funding ICE, the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse, by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis on Saturday prompted several Senate Democrats to voice their opposition.

In perhaps the clearest sign yet that the path to fully fund the government by the January 30 deadline is in trouble, many lawmakers who crossed party lines last fall to back a short-term plan to end the previous shutdown are now saying they won’t support this key appropriations bill without major changes.

“I hate shutdowns,” Sen. Angus King told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, but as his own home state of Maine experiences a surge of federal immigration officers, King said he “can’t vote for a bill that includes ICE funding under these circumstances.”

The independent senator, who caucuses with the Democrats, suggested that Senate Majority Leader John Thune should try to keep the majority of the government open by separating measures to fund DHS from bills to fund other agencies, saying he believes lawmakers would pass those.

“Let’s have an honest negotiation. Put some guardrails on what’s going on, some accountability, and that would solve this problem,” King said. “We don’t have to have a shutdown.”

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Nevada Democrat, echoed King’s sentiment against supporting the DHS funding bill in its current form, which she said offered “no accountability,” and also suggested passing legislation to keep other parts of the government open.

So far, Thune and other GOP leaders have expressed no interest in breaking out DHS funding into a separate vote.

Republicans, who hold a 53-seat majority, will need the support of a handful of Democrats to advance any funding bill. If GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky votes no, as he usually does on appropriations bills, at least eight Democrats will need to cross the aisle to keep all parts of the government open.

For now, GOP leaders can count out King and Cortez Masto, two of the three members of the Democratic caucus who consistently voted with most Republicans against a shutdown late last year.

Sen. John Fetterman, the third member of that group, has not said how he’ll vote on DHS funding, though he has made clear in the past he opposes shutdowns.

The Pennsylvania Democrat, who opposes rhetoric from the left wing of his party about “abolishing” ICE, wrote on X earlier this month that his colleagues “must resist the destructive tendencies to push extreme positions.”

After the record 43-day full government shutdown last year, five additional Democrats joined King, Cortez Masto and Fetterman in a deal to extend current funds through the end of this month, after the stalemate resulted in thousands of canceled flights and government employees missing paychecks and fearing termination.

Many of the Democrats who eventually compromised in November on their demand for an immediate vote on extending enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies have indicated they now want restrictions on ICE as a condition for funding DHS.

Sens. Tim Kaine and Jacky Rosen both have firmly said they’ll oppose any DHS funding measure without additional safeguards against aggressive immigration enforcement tactics.

Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire haven’t explicitly said they’ll block the bill, but have voiced their opposition to ICE.

“There is going to be a lot of discussion that needs to be made,” Shaheen told “Fox News Sunday” when asked whether she’ll vote to advance the spending measure, adding that Speaker Mike Johnson “needs to bring the House back in. He needs to stop sending people home all the time, when there’s a tough issue that he has to deal with, come back in. Let’s sit down. Let’s figure this out, and let’s get this done.”

The House isn’t due to return to Washington until early next month, after passing final steps to keep the government funded last week. If the Senate does make any changes to the House package, Johnson would need to call his members back for a vote on the new versions.

Sen. Chris Murphy, who has been pushing Democratic leaders to force the issue of ICE restrictions in DHS funding talks, told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday that the only off-ramp for his party would be putting “constraints on this lawlessness.”

“Democrats are not going to vote to fund this version of the Department of Homeland Security, but if we can get some serious reforms that saves and protects lives in our cities, then we’ll come to the table,” the Connecticut lawmaker said on “State of the Union.”

A major snowstorm forcing the Senate to delay its first vote of the week to Tuesday evening, and the House’s planned recess, tee up an incredibly narrow window for Congress to fund the remainder of the government by late Friday.

CNN’s Veronica stracqualursi contributed to this report.

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