Democrats Revolt Against Funding Homeland Security Triggering Likely Shutdown
The Senate failed to advance a full-year appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Thursday afternoon after Democrats pledged to withhold their votes until the party’s sweeping demands reining…
The Senate failed to advance a full-year appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Thursday afternoon after Democrats pledged to withhold their votes until the party’s sweeping demands reining in immigration enforcement are met.
Lawmakers voted 52-47 to advance the House-passed homeland security measure, falling short of a filibuster-proof majority. The DHS — a sprawling agency employing more than 260,000 Americans — will shut down Saturday at 12:01 a.m. absent a last-minute funding deal.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune flipped his vote in order to bring the legislation up for a vote again.
Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman was the lone Democratic lawmaker to break with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and support the DHS funding bill. Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who was recently discharged from the hospital after checking himself in due to flu-like symptoms, did not vote.
Democrats for weeks have refused to fund the DHS for the full fiscal year absent major concessions from the Trump administration to reform federal immigration enforcement. Democratic leaders issued a 10-point list of demands on Feb. 4, which Republicans largely declared to be non-starters. Among the lengthy list of demands are requirements to use judicial warrants before detaining illegal migrants on private property, prohibiting officers from wearing masks and ending roving patrols.
Republicans countered that many of the proposals, such as tightening
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warrant requirements, would cripple Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) ability to enforce the law.
Democratic sought to justify their “no” votes by citing a lack of progress in negotiations with Republicans. However, GOP senators pointed out that the Trump administration has responded in “good faith” to work toward an agreement despite delays from Democrats in starting talks.
“The announcement that Homan made this morning was additive to the attempt to try and find a solution here,” Thune told reporters Thursday. The majority leader also noted that the White House has sent Democrats legislative text, though details of the proposal have not been reported.
Homan announced a drawdown of federal immigration officers in Minneapolis on Thursday. He credited the “unprecedented levels of coordination” with state and local officials in Minnesota for ending the crackdown, which was called Operation Metro Surge.
Still, Democrats argued the end of the federal immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota was not enough to meet their demands to fund ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
“While I’m encouraged that there are negotiations going on, I’m not going to vote for funding as long as they’re still doing what they’re doing, not just in Minneapolis, but across the country,” Democratic Delaware Sen. Chris Coons told reporters Thursday.
Democrats have largely sidestepped the fact that ICE and CBP would likely continue normal operations due to funding the entities received outside the normal appropriations process in July 2025. Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Actallocated $75 billion for ICE and $65 billion for CBP over multiple years.
Blocking DHS funding would have an outsize impact on vital national security and disaster relief agencies, which threatens to backfire politically on Democrats. The DHS oversees the U.S. Coast Guard, the Secret Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) among other entities.
Schumer previously warned about the far-reaching consequences of a DHS funding lapse in September 2023.
“If there’s a shutdown, TSA could be thrown into chaos, meaning possible delays and disruption for all fliers,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “Border enforcement agencies would be undermined, and even FEMA’s disaster relief fund could actually dry up. We don’t need to go through any of this.”
DHS employees deemed essential would still report to work in a shutdown. However, they would not receive their salary until funding for the agency is restored. Lawmakers would notably continue to be paid during the shutdown.
DHS is the lone agency that has not been funded through September, meaning a partial shutdown would only affect entities under its purview. These organizations have warned this week that a funding lapse would be detrimental to their operations.
“We will feel the ripple effects…delayed contracts, diminished hiring, our efforts to train and deploy the best,” Matthew Quinn, deputy director of the U.S. Secret Service, said Wednesday. “Our difficult mission becomes exponentially harder during a government shutdown.”
Republicans voiced pessimism Thursday that Democrats would agree to a short-term funding patch for DHS that would avert a partial shutdown.
“Chuck Schumer has decided to shut down the government again,” Republican Florida Sen. Rick Scott told reporters Thursday. “TSA is not going to get paid. FEMA is not going to get paid.”
DHS is currently operating on a two-week continuing resolution (CR), which expires Friday at midnight. Democrats notably pushed for the short-term funding patch to allow for negotiations with the White House to continue.
With no funding deal in reach, Thune has advocated for another stopgap funding measure to avert a shutdown.
“We ought to at least be trying to keep this process moving, do a CR that allow the negotiations to continue,” Thune told reporters on Thursday.
Andi Shae Napier contributed to this report.
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