For weeks, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy spelled out exactly where he stood on funding for the Department of Homeland Security: He wouldn’t vote to extend its budget without securing a deal to rein in the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement.
He wanted to see more progress on negotiations to reform U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. But throughout the week, the prospects of clinching a deal looked grim. And Democrats and Republicans continued to blame each other for their unwillingness to engage seriously ahead of a Friday funding deadline.
By the time the DHS funding bill came up for a vote on Thursday, the outcome was already baked in, and a shutdown of the agency is all but certain to begin this weekend.
An initial vote on the House-passed funding bill failed on Thursday afternoon, with both of Connecticut’s senators and most Democrats opposed. Shortly after, U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, the Alabama Republican who leads the Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee, offered another two-week extension of flat funding through unanimous consent to give more time for negotiations.
It only takes one senator to block a unanimous consent agreement, and the Connecticut senator was the one to offer that objection on behalf of his party.
“Senate Democrats have been clear that we have all taken an oath, an oath to uphold the law of the country, and this Department of Homeland Security, this ICE, is out of control,” Murphy said from the Senate floor. “I am hopeful that these discussions will continue, but frankly we had plenty of time to get a deal in the last two weeks. And the lack of seriousness from the White House and from Republicans not getting language until last night has put us in the position we are in today.”
“We want to fund the Department of Homeland Security, but only a department that is obeying the law, and for that reason, I object,” he concluded.
Britt disputed the characterization that Republicans have not been meaningfully engaged in negotiations. She also underscored that a DHS shutdown will hurt workers.
“By not allowing us time to continue these conversations and shutting the government down, real people will pay the price,” Britt said from the floor. “We’re operating in good faith. We have continued to move the ball forward.”
With members of Congress out of town through next week, major questions linger over the resolution to the forthcoming shutdown and the path forward on DHS talks.
Negotiations got off to a rocky start last week. Both sides said there were mixed signals about who would be involved and accused each other of slow-walking talks.
Days earlier, Democrats put out their list of demands. Some of them, like requiring officers to obtain a warrant from a judge to enter property, appear to be nonstarters for Republicans.
Other proposals include preventing agents from conducting enforcement near sensitive locations like schools, religious institutions and polling places, ending racial profiling, expanding training for officers, ending limitations on members of Congress who want to visit ICE centers, requiring the use of body cameras, prohibiting collection of databases of individuals participating in First Amendment activities, and rules regarding identification for federal agents like banning face coverings and displaying ID numbers.
Democrats said they were awaiting a response from Republicans. And they vented frustrations that the White House sent its own set of proposals just a day before the Senate would take up votes on Homeland Security. The details of what’s in the GOP counteroffer are unclear, but Democrats have called it unserious.
Murphy, who is the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee, has had more of an outside role in the DHS talks. He reiterated that there was initially a lack of clarity from Republicans about whom to talk to.
Murphy and Britt’s appropriations staff were talking at the beginning stages of negotiations, but the two senators have not been in direct talks. They both said Democratic leadership and the White House have taken the lead on the process. But he’s spent time in recent days talking at length with his own caucus and briefed the Congressional Progressive Caucus the other day about the state of talks with the White House.
“I’m still connected to the talks,” Murphy said in an interview from the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. “The discussions are more between leadership and the White House, and I’m certainly involved in keeping in touch with those negotiations and providing thoughts and input.”
Murphy remains hopeful they can still get to a deal on ICE reforms. And he pointed to the full drawdown of federal agents in Minneapolis as a sign that the White House is pushing for Democrats to get behind funding the overall department.
Because they couldn’t reach consensus by Thursday — the last day the Senate was in session before the week-long recess — Democrats couldn’t get behind funding DHS. While the two-week continuing resolution didn’t have a recorded vote, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., had indicated he wouldn’t back any version of funding.
Murphy and Blumenthal were split over a funding deal late last month to prevent a partial government shutdown and give Congress more time to negotiate on ICE.
“Unless those demands are met, I see no way that I would vote for any more DHS spending including an extension of the existing budget through a [continuing resolution],” Blumenthal said in an interview on Wednesday a day before votes. “I cannot in good conscience, in effect, give a vote of approval to extend funding for that agency in its present form.”
With the funding deadline Friday at midnight, it would be the third shutdown in a matter of five months, though on a much smaller scale and only for Homeland Security since every other government agency has funding through the end of the federal fiscal year on Sept. 30.
A shutdown of DHS would last at least through next week as lawmakers in both chambers are out of town for the recess, though House and Senate leaders have signaled to members to be ready to come back sooner if there’s a breakthrough.
A shutdown wouldn’t just affect immigration enforcement agencies but other offices like FEMA, TSA and the U.S. Coast Guard.
But a Homeland Security shutdown would have more limited effects if it lasts briefly, since some workers covered under this bill wouldn’t miss a paycheck for another month. Other agencies have enough funding to withstand a short-term shutdown.
ICE and Customs and Border Protection are fully funded through a $75 billion pot of money approved as part of Republicans’ “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
But lawmakers fear what a longer term shutdown could mean for many of the agencies covered under DHS, especially for disaster relief, travel and workers on active duty.
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, introduced a bill this week to fund all agencies at DHS and to separate out ICE, Border Patrol and the office of the DHS secretary.
“There is no controversy around FEMA and Coast Guard and Secret Service and TSA. That should continue, and it should not be held hostage,” DeLauro told reporters Wednesday.
Republican leaders quickly shot it down. “Not happening,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso posted on X after news circulated of DeLauro’s proposal.
But DeLauro said House Democratic leadership was supportive of her plan, and she similarly had support from her colleagues in Connecticut like Murphy and U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney.
When lawmakers return to Washington the last week of February, it is unclear if they would push to take up this approach.
The Connecticut Mirror/Connecticut Public Radio federal policy reporter position is made possible, in part, by funding from the Robert and Margaret Patricelli Family Foundation.
This story was originally published by the Connecticut Mirror.
