Hurdles Await in House After Senate Passes Spending Agreement

The Senate passed a deal to fund the government Friday but lawmakers must navigate other obstacles to quickly end a likely partial shutdown and reach an agreement on immigration enforcement policy changes Democrats are demanding.

The Senate passed the agreement on a 71-29 bipartisan vote just hours before the expiration of funding for the government’s largest agencies at the end of Friday. But House lawmakers aren’t in Washington and aren’t scheduled to return until Feb. 2, making at least a brief partial shutdown almost certain.

House passage of the agreement is also far from guaranteed, as some lawmakers in both parties have come out against the funding deal. Conservative hardliners fired off pushback against any agreement to change the House-passed package.

The package includes full-year funding bills for Defense, Labor-HHS-Education, Transportation-HUD, Financial Services, and National Security-State programs through September, while funding the DHS through Feb. 13.

The agreement to separate Homeland Security funding came after Democrats revolted against including it in the broader package and demanded policy changes after immigration enforcement agents killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, in Minnesota last week.

Next Steps

Lawmakers would like to ship the deal to Trump’s desk as fast as possible. The House is slated to vote Monday at 6:30 p.m. on the funding legislation, a GOP aide confirmed.

House Republican leaders told GOP lawmakers on a conference call they are aiming to fast-track the bill and put it up under suspension of the rules, an expedited process that would require a two-thirds majority to pass, according to another GOP aide familiar with the planning and a lawmaker on the call.

It’s unclear if there’s enough support to pass the bill given the extremely narrow GOP majority. The House Freedom Caucus has argued the Senate should’ve passed the original six-bill package with full-year Homeland Security funding.

“The House has passed an appropriations package negotiated and agreed to by Senate Democrats. The package will not come back through the House without funding for the Department of Homeland Security,” the Freedom Caucus wrote in a letter to Trump earlier this week before he reached agreement with Senate Democrats.

Individual House Republicans could also hold up the package with unrelated demands. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) said in a post on X Friday she will vote against the deal without the SAVE America Act, a bill requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote, attached to the funding bill.

“I am a hard no and will never vote for this,” Luna wrote, adding: “STOP BEING WEAKLINGS!”

Trump endorsed the deal in a social media post Thursday. House passage might require him to lean on conservative holdouts, which Trump has done in the past to help GOP leaders carry difficult votes over the finish line. But using the fast-track suspension process will also require significant Democratic support.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said separating DHS from the other five spending bills was a “victory for the American people” but didn’t explicitly say whether he and House Democrats would vote for the legislation.

The package is facing some public pushback from progressives in the House. Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in a post on X he will vote against the deal since the stopgap still funds ICE.

The Office of Management and Budget will begin ordering agencies to shut down once government funding expires at the end of Friday, an OMB spokesperson said.

If the House can pass the deal by early next week, a shutdown could have limited practical impact.

Challenges Ahead for DHS

Democrats are aiming to use a two-week stopgap to negotiate policy changes for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, which they say are necessary in response to the agencies’ actions in Minnesota.

Senate Democrats united around a suite of proposals, including changes to warrant authority rules, requiring federal agents to wear body cameras, and prohibiting the use of masks for federal agents to obscure their identities.

Senate Republicans have expressed openness to some of the Democrats’ proposals, but other demands were met with heavy skepticism.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told reporters Thursday that federal agents “have to have body cams” but was cool to banning the use of masks, arguing agents should be protected from having their identities revealed and disseminated, which he and others have said leads to threats against them and their families.

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) said Thursday some of the ideas that Democrats are “floating out there are terrible,” including telling agents they need judicial warrants when they already have administrative warrants.

Republicans are also expected to make their own demands that could complicate talks. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he wants a new DHS package to include ending sanctuary city policies.

Republicans pushed back against a two-week stopgap in funding because of skepticism a broader deal could be reached in that timeline.

“Two weeks isn’t enough. Just procedurally it’s not enough,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said.