WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate leaders were scrambling on Friday to save a bipartisan spending deal and prevent a partial government shutdown this weekend as Democrats demanded new restrictions on federal immigration raids across the country.
Democrats struck a rare deal with President Donald Trump to separate funding for the Department of Homeland Security from a broad government spending bill and provide money for that agency for two weeks while Congress debates curbs on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That agreement came after irate Democratsthreatened to block the entire spending bill and trigger a shutdown in the wake of the deaths of two protesters at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis.
But passage of the package was delayed late Thursday as Senate leaders worked to win support.
“Republicans and Democrats have come together to get the vast majority of the government funded until September,” Trump said in a social media post Thursday evening. He encouraged members of both parties to cast a “much needed Bipartisan ‘YES’ vote.”
Leaving the Capitol just before midnight, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said there were “snags on both sides” as he and Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York tried to work through any objections.
“Hopefully people will be of the spirit to try and get this done” on Friday, when the Senate was scheduled to reconvene in the late morning.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he was one of the objecting senators. He said ICE agents were being treated unfairly and he opposed House language repealing a new law that gives senators the ability to sue the government for millions of dollars if their personal or office data is accessed without their knowledge.
Even if the Senate passes the funding measure, it would need House approval before becoming law. The House is not expected to return until Monday, raising the possibility of at least a temporary partial shutdown over the weekend.
The Trump administration is expected to issue guidance to federal agencies on how to proceed.
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.
Democrats lay out demands
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.
Tom Homan, the president’s border czar, said Thursday in Minneapolis that federal immigration officials are developing a plan to reduce the number of agents in the state, but that would depend on cooperation from state authorities.
Still far apart on 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.
Graham said some of the Democratic proposals “make sense,” such as better training and body cameras. Still, he said he was putting his Senate colleagues “on notice” that if Democrats try to make changes to the funding bill, he would insist on new language preventing local governments from resisting the administration’s immigration policies.
Uncertainty in the House
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told The Associated Press on Thursday that he had been “vehemently 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 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.
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Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro, Kevin Freking, Stephen Groves, Joey Cappelletti, Seung Min Kim, Michelle L. Price and Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
