Following nearly a week of Democrats and Republicans growing further apart on government funding in response to the killing of Alex Pretti in Minnesota, senators finally agreed to a deal Friday night to avoid an extended shutdown.
But the $1.2 trillion agreement wasn’t without its fair share of drama.
After President Donald Trump and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., went back and forth all day Thursday negotiating the deal, senators went back and forth most of the night and much of Friday. It took leaders agreeing to a number of amendment votes — and some side deals — before the Senate passed five of the six remaining appropriations bills, 71-29. In the same package, the one remaining spending measure — a Department of Homeland Security funding bill — got a two-week continuing resolution so lawmakers could continue negotiating.
The deal is unlikely to prevent a partial shutdown, however. To avoid a lapse in funding, the House would need to get back to Washington and pass the new deal in the next few hours before Friday turns to Saturday — something that won’t happen. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has been clear that the House won’t reconvene until Monday morning.
The deal sets in stone funding for 96% of federal agency spending for fiscal 2026. And it would give negotiators more time to consider policy changes for immigration enforcement — an imperative for Democrats after officials shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minnesota.
Trump gave the agreement his blessing Thursday night, posting on Truth Social that he wanted to avoid a shutdown.
“The only thing that can slow our Country down is another long and damaging Government Shutdown,” Trump wrote.
But that support didn’t prevent some eleventh-hour pushback.
After Trump and Schumer reached a tentative deal Thursday night, Senate GOP leaders had to lock in a time agreement to speed up the consideration process, which requires consent from all 100 senators. Without approval from the entire group, the process could take days.
Still, some senators had concerns, delaying votes for nearly 24 hours.
Among the skeptical senators was Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who bristled at a provision that would bar lawmakers from suing over the collection of their phone metadata as part of Jack Smith’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
In November, the Senate added language to the bill to end the government shutdown that allowed those GOP senators to sue for up to $500,000 each, enraging the House. Earlier this month, the House moved to undo it. Graham wasn’t having it.
In the end, he settled for a commitment from leadership to hold votes down the road on the Smith investigation and sanctuary cities. But during his moment of hardline tactics, Graham brushed off the president’s influence.
“I’m an ally of the White House, but I’m not owned by them,” Graham said.
But if passing the funding package was difficult, striking a deal on a long-term DHS funding bill could be even harder.
Enraged by the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis, Democrats are demanding a host of changes to how Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducts its business, including ending roving patrols and tightening rules regarding the use of warrants, creating a uniform code of conduct for federal agents and ordering federal agents to remove their masks and turn on body cameras.
“Congress must step up to the plate. The Republican Majority must step up to the plate. Republicans in Congress cannot allow this violent status quo to continue,” Schumer said Thursday morning. “They must work with Democrats on legislation, real legislation, strong legislation, to rein ICE in.”
Some Republicans acknowledge the need for some changes given the public outcry.
“The mood of Congress is that ICE needs to be reformed. I think that’s the mood of the country right now also,” Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., told MS NOW. “So that’s the direction that we’re moving.”
Landing that part of this deal, however, is likely to be no small feat. In a sign of the difficulty ahead, Republicans are already balking at some requests from Democrats. For instance, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a Republican with a penchant for working across the aisle, said he has concerns about mandating the removal of masks.
“I know it seems like, you know, why can’t they pull down the veil, except for media and activists taking pictures and then doxing law enforcement people who are following orders,” Tillis said.
Beyond Senate disagreements, conservative House Republicans are also vowing to make a host of their own demands during negotiations over DHS funding, threatening to ratchet up the already tricky process.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a member of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, said he’ll demand that sanctuary cities are banned.
“I have my own list if DHS is opened back up,” he wrote on X.
A breakdown in negotiations over Homeland Security funds not only looks possible; it seems plausible. The two-week stopgap would set a Feb. 13 deadline for a deal to fund that agency, and Democrats have said they need policy changes to be written into law. They say they won’t settle for side deals with Trump.
“Handshakes are not the coin of the realm right now,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., told reporters. “We need to see things in writing. And the notion that we’re going to somehow trust what their initial position was — ‘Well, we’ll do this on executive action’ — that doesn’t pass the smell test.”
On Friday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., was already setting up blame for Republicans if DHS funding talks go sideways.
“If, for whatever reason, Speaker Johnson bends the need to the far right, then Republicans are going to shut the government down,” Jeffries said.
The funding deal highlights the precarious position Republicans found themselves in, as public scrutiny of ICE has increased. Lawmakers wrestled over how long the Homeland Security stopgap should be for much of Thursday before Republicans agreed to Democrats’ demand for a two-week measure.
It was exactly the result GOP lawmakers were looking to avoid.
“I’m not OK with it, but that’s where we find ourselves,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., said of the agreement. “So sometimes to fund the government, you end up having to vote for things that, 48 hours ago, you would have dreamed you’d vote for.”
But the deal is also the result of Republicans failing to maintain unity during funding negotiations.
First, moderate Senate Republicans criticized the Trump administration’s actions in Minnesota. Tillis and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, even called for Kristi Noem’s ouster as Homeland Security secretary. Then Republicans started signaling that, contrary to Thune’s stance, it’d be a good idea to break the DHS funding bill off from the rest of the appropriations bills.
By Thursday, when all Democrats voted against a procedural motion on a Republican-backed proposal to pass all six spending bills, seven conservatives broke with their party and voted against the package, too.
It was just the latest signal that Republicans weren’t aligned on their strategy. And by the time Trump started engaging directly with Schumer — a Democratic insistence from the last shutdown fight that never happened — it was clear that the president desperately wanted to avoid another shutdown.
Although he won’t technically avoid an appropriations lapse, the deal averts a protracted standoff — at least until lawmakers are back at it over DHS funding.
The post Senators pass a deal on government funding — but not in time to avoid a shutdown appeared first on MS NOW.