Federal Budget and Shutdowns

After the Minneapolis killing of Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol agent, Senate Democrats have vowed not to advance a six‑bill appropriations package that includes Homeland Security funding unless statutory ICE and CBP reforms — proposals range from warrant and identification requirements to limits on interior enforcement, body cameras and stricter reporting — are written into the DHS bill. With the Jan. 30/Friday funding deadline days away, the impasse raises a real prospect of a partial government shutdown as Republicans push to keep DHS inside the minibus and Democrats dig in for binding changes.

CBS reports that Senate Democrats, under pressure after Border Patrol agents killed 37‑year‑old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis—the second deadly federal‑agent shooting there this month—are threatening to block a six‑bill funding package unless the DHS title is stripped, a move that would likely cause a partial government shutdown. But because President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act handed DHS an extra roughly $165 billion last year, including $75 billion for ICE and $65 billion for CBP, the article shows that immigration enforcement would continue uninterrupted for years even if annual DHS appropriations lapse. Internal summaries from Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Rosa DeLauro concede that failure to pass a Homeland Security bill would instead shut or furlough other DHS components—FEMA, TSA, CISA, the Coast Guard—while ICE and CBP carried on using OBBBA money without the new policy constraints Congress is now debating. During the 43‑day shutdown last fall, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem already used that cushion to keep more than 70,000 law‑enforcement officers paid, and Sen. Rand Paul is now publicly pointing out that ICE effectively has nearly 87% more funding locked in than last year even if the current $10 billion add‑on fails. The story underscores that the real stakes in this week’s standoff are not whether the Trump administration’s mass‑deportation machinery keeps running—it will—but whether Congress leaves it operating on a huge, pre‑authorized pot of money with fewer strings while starving the rest of DHS.