Thune steamrolls Dems’ DHS rebellion as Fetterman blames, Schumer under pressure

Senate Republicans are moving forward with a behemoth funding package to keep the government open and hope to blast through Democratic opposition in the process.

Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, on Monday tabled the first procedural step for the six-bill funding package, which includes the politically divisive Homeland Security (DHS) spending bill, even as Senate Democrats warned they would block the legislation.

Monday’s action is just the first of many hurdles lawmakers will have to overcome, but it’s important as extreme weather has rocked much of the country and threatened to delay the process altogether.

Senate Democrats threaten to shut down Dhs funding after Minnesota ice shooting

Senate Majority Leader John Thunes, RS.D., said Friday’s deadline for funding comes as the gambling government is impacting the Senate. Passing the package and sending it to President Donald Trump’s desk would fully fund the government until September, when lawmakers must pass a dozen spending bills to keep the lights on.

But there is an immediate fight and a DHS funding that threatens to derail the GOP’s plan to prevent another shutdown.

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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus have come out en masse against the sweeping package, including the homeland funding bill, after Alex Pretty, 37, was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis on Saturday.

Schumer and Senate Democrats quickly mobilized their opposition to the funding bill, despite maintaining a tenuous truce with the GOP in their bipartisan government funding talks over the past two days.

A prominent senator does not fund Dhs as ice, federal agents enter his state

Despite the fringes of a largely unified front, including many moderate Senate Democrats who crossed the aisle to help Republicans reopen the government last year, Schumer has one perennial defector.

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa. has consistently opposed any attempt to shut down the government. He joined Senate Republicans more than a dozen times last year to reopen the government after his colleagues resisted.

And as in the past, Fetterman is unwilling to shut down the federal government, agreeing with Senate Democrats that the DHS bill should be removed from the broader package.

He noted in a statement that while the government shutdown would affect Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) funding, the GOP’s massive, “one big, beautiful” bill would inject more than $170 billion into DHS over the next several years.

Senate opposes revolt against DHS funding bill amid Minneapolis chaos, hiking government shutdown risk

“I reject calls to defund or abolish ICE. I strongly disagree with many of the tactics and practices ICE has deployed in Minneapolis, and believe that changes must be made,” Fetterman said. “I want a conversation on the DHS appropriations bill and support removing it from the minibus.”

“It’s unlikely to happen, and our country will suffer another shutdown,” he continued. “We must find a way forward, and I am committed to being a voice of reason and common sense.”

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Fetterman and his colleagues have said the DHS bill should be removed from the broader package and that they support the remaining five bills. But doing so would open up a procedural nightmare in the process and likely lead to a partial government shutdown, as the House would have to return from a week-long recess to weigh in.

And in a final attack on a possible shutdown, Schumer argued that the onus was on Thune and Senate Republicans, even as Senate Democrats negotiated the current funding package on a bipartisan basis.

“Leader Thune and Senate Republicans have a responsibility to prevent a partial government shutdown,” Schumer said in a statement. “If Leader Thune puts those five bills on the floor this week, we can pass them immediately. If not, Republicans will be responsible for yet another government shutdown.”

Original article source: Thune steamrolls Dems’ DHS rebellion as Fetterman blames, Schumer under pressure