WH agrees to strip DHS bill as shutdown looms
Plus: Amy Klobuchar launches her bid for Minnesota governor, a preview of the TX-18 runoff, and Elizabeth Warren warns OpenAI’s CEO is “privatizing profits and socializing losses.”
First Things First
👋🏾 Hi, hey, hello! Breaking: Senate Democrats and the White House finalized an agreement this afternoon to strip the Homeland Security funding bill out of a broader spending package and replace it with a two-week DHS continuing resolution, a move designed to keep pressure on talks over ICE and Border Patrol reforms after the killing of Alex Pretti.
Senate Republican leadership is currently circulating the arrangement to see if anyone objects before it’s formally announced or voted on. I’m told none of this is final as of publication, but optimism is high that the deal will close.
Without an agreement in hand, the entire Senate Democratic Caucus this morning blocked a procedural vote to advance the minibus to the floor—an outcome Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said hours after the Pretti shooting would occur if DHS funding was not split off and immigration enforcement reforms were not addressed. Eight Republicans also voted against proceeding to debate, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) so he could bring it back up. The final vote was 45–55.
Even if the Senate clears the agreement tonight, a brief partial government shutdown is expected this weekend because the House is out until Monday, setting up a funding lapse—the second since last October—before any floor action next week.
“This was important to show that there was unanimity in the Democratic Caucus, that we’re not going to proceed with further funding for DHS at this moment, and that we can pass the other five bills, I mean, literally today, if they’ll break them out,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said after the failed test vote.
