Shutdown averted for now, but Senate warns DHS fight could trigger another in days
Are they actually going to vote on something real?
As the House crushed Republican resistance to a Trump-backed funding package to end the latest partial government shutdown, lawmakers in the upper chamber weren’t confident that Congress could avoid being in the same position in the coming weeks.
President Donald Trump and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., brokered the deal to end the shutdown last week. That funding truce included a move to sideline the controversial Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill in favor of a short-term extension to keep the agency open.
The House's passage of the package, which funds 11 out of 12 government agencies under Congress' purview, sets the stage for tense negotiations between the White House and Senate Democrats over reforms to DHS.
END OF GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN IN SIGHT AS SPEAKER JOHNSON OVERCOMES GOP REVOLT
But several Senate Republicans are questioning whether two weeks, which had shrunk to just 9 days as of Wednesday, would be enough time to avert another partial shutdown — this time only for DHS.
"I think it's gonna be very difficult to get the funding bill done for DHS in two weeks," Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital.
Scott was one of a handful of Republicans in the upper chamber that rejected the compromise plan and the underlying original package because of bloated spending on earmarks and over concerns that Senate Democrats would effectively try to kneecap Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations across the country.
"We’re going to be in a worse spot," Scott said. "I mean … all their earmarks got done, and then now they're going to want to, you know, they want to [get] busy de-fanging and defunding ICE."
Congressional Democrats wanted to relitigate the bipartisan DHS bill after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti during an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis. The demand forced Trump to intervene and thrust the government into a partial shutdown on Friday.
While the funding deal made it across his desk, it won’t get Congress out of the jam it's in, given the short amount of time lawmakers have to negotiate the bill, which is consistently the most difficult spending bill to pass year in and year out.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., noted that once negotiations began, Congress had a "very short timeframe in which to do this, which I am against."
TRUMP UNDERCUTS GOP PUSH TO ATTACH SAVE ACT TO SHUTDOWN BILL AS CONSERVATIVES THREATEN MUTINY
"But the Democrats insisted on, you know, a two-week window, which, again, I don't understand the rationale for that," Thune said. "Anybody who knows this …
Are they actually going to vote on something real?
As the House crushed Republican resistance to a Trump-backed funding package to end the latest partial government shutdown, lawmakers in the upper chamber weren’t confident that Congress could avoid being in the same position in the coming weeks.
President Donald Trump and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., brokered the deal to end the shutdown last week. That funding truce included a move to sideline the controversial Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill in favor of a short-term extension to keep the agency open.
The House's passage of the package, which funds 11 out of 12 government agencies under Congress' purview, sets the stage for tense negotiations between the White House and Senate Democrats over reforms to DHS.
END OF GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN IN SIGHT AS SPEAKER JOHNSON OVERCOMES GOP REVOLT
But several Senate Republicans are questioning whether two weeks, which had shrunk to just 9 days as of Wednesday, would be enough time to avert another partial shutdown — this time only for DHS.
"I think it's gonna be very difficult to get the funding bill done for DHS in two weeks," Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital.
Scott was one of a handful of Republicans in the upper chamber that rejected the compromise plan and the underlying original package because of bloated spending on earmarks and over concerns that Senate Democrats would effectively try to kneecap Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations across the country.
"We’re going to be in a worse spot," Scott said. "I mean … all their earmarks got done, and then now they're going to want to, you know, they want to [get] busy de-fanging and defunding ICE."
Congressional Democrats wanted to relitigate the bipartisan DHS bill after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti during an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis. The demand forced Trump to intervene and thrust the government into a partial shutdown on Friday.
While the funding deal made it across his desk, it won’t get Congress out of the jam it's in, given the short amount of time lawmakers have to negotiate the bill, which is consistently the most difficult spending bill to pass year in and year out.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., noted that once negotiations began, Congress had a "very short timeframe in which to do this, which I am against."
TRUMP UNDERCUTS GOP PUSH TO ATTACH SAVE ACT TO SHUTDOWN BILL AS CONSERVATIVES THREATEN MUTINY
"But the Democrats insisted on, you know, a two-week window, which, again, I don't understand the rationale for that," Thune said. "Anybody who knows this …
Shutdown averted for now, but Senate warns DHS fight could trigger another in days
Are they actually going to vote on something real?
As the House crushed Republican resistance to a Trump-backed funding package to end the latest partial government shutdown, lawmakers in the upper chamber weren’t confident that Congress could avoid being in the same position in the coming weeks.
President Donald Trump and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., brokered the deal to end the shutdown last week. That funding truce included a move to sideline the controversial Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill in favor of a short-term extension to keep the agency open.
The House's passage of the package, which funds 11 out of 12 government agencies under Congress' purview, sets the stage for tense negotiations between the White House and Senate Democrats over reforms to DHS.
END OF GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN IN SIGHT AS SPEAKER JOHNSON OVERCOMES GOP REVOLT
But several Senate Republicans are questioning whether two weeks, which had shrunk to just 9 days as of Wednesday, would be enough time to avert another partial shutdown — this time only for DHS.
"I think it's gonna be very difficult to get the funding bill done for DHS in two weeks," Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital.
Scott was one of a handful of Republicans in the upper chamber that rejected the compromise plan and the underlying original package because of bloated spending on earmarks and over concerns that Senate Democrats would effectively try to kneecap Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations across the country.
"We’re going to be in a worse spot," Scott said. "I mean … all their earmarks got done, and then now they're going to want to, you know, they want to [get] busy de-fanging and defunding ICE."
Congressional Democrats wanted to relitigate the bipartisan DHS bill after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti during an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis. The demand forced Trump to intervene and thrust the government into a partial shutdown on Friday.
While the funding deal made it across his desk, it won’t get Congress out of the jam it's in, given the short amount of time lawmakers have to negotiate the bill, which is consistently the most difficult spending bill to pass year in and year out.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., noted that once negotiations began, Congress had a "very short timeframe in which to do this, which I am against."
TRUMP UNDERCUTS GOP PUSH TO ATTACH SAVE ACT TO SHUTDOWN BILL AS CONSERVATIVES THREATEN MUTINY
"But the Democrats insisted on, you know, a two-week window, which, again, I don't understand the rationale for that," Thune said. "Anybody who knows this …
