Democrats Demand Changes to Homeland Security Bill, Risking Another Shutdown
Senate Democratic leader Schumer says lawmakers should split off and pass other funding measures amid anger over Minneapolis shooting
- Senate Democrats threaten a partial government shutdown by refusing to pass a funding package without changes to homeland security provisions.
- The Democrats’ stance follows a deadly shooting in Minneapolis involving a U.S. Border Patrol officer, uniting the party on a hard line.
- Republicans control the Senate 53-47, but 60 votes are needed for most legislation, complicating the passage of the $1.3 trillion spending package.
WASHINGTON—Senate Democrats angered by the deadly shooting in Minneapolis said they wouldn’t vote for a government funding package without major changes to its homeland security provisions, raising the possibility of a partial government shutdown this coming weekend.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said Sunday that Republicans should work with Democrats to instead advance the other five funding bills in the package while lawmakers rewrite the Department of Homeland Security measure. Democrats are demanding constraints on DHS’s immigration enforcement activities and more oversight.
Schumer said lawmakers need to overhaul immigration enforcement to “protect the public.” He said reworking the DHS bill while passing the remaining five—which include military and health funding—was the “best course of action, and the American people are on our side.”
Republicans control the Senate 53-47, but 60 votes are needed to advance most legislation. Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R., Maine) is exploring all options for the legislation, a spokeswoman said.
The Homeland Security funding is wrapped into a broader package covering about $1.3 trillion in annual spending. The Democrats’ call for changes raised the prospect of Congress running out of time before funding for much of the federal government expires at 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 31, which would trigger a partial government shutdown. The House has already passed all six measures but it would need to approve any changes the Senate makes before it goes to President Trump’s desk—and the House is on recess this coming week.
With the new government funding deadline looming, many Senate Democrats had wanted to avoid another shutdown after a record-setting funding lapse last year. But the deadly shooting of a 37-year-old man in Minneapolis by a U.S. Border Patrol officer changed the dynamic, aides and lawmakers said, uniting the party in taking a hard line. The Trump administration has surged border-control officers into the city as part of a crackdown on illegal immigration, sparking protests and physical confrontations.
Many Senate Democrats—including some who broke with the majority of their party in November and voted to reopen the government—issued fiery statements Saturday saying they wouldn’t back any funds for DHS, the agency that includes the U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“Enough is enough,” said Sen. Jacky Rosen (D., Nev.), who last year was one of eight Democrats to join Senate Republicans in voting to end the shutdown. “I have the responsibility to hold the Trump administration accountable when I see abuses of power,” she said.
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D., Nev.)—who consistently voted to keep the government open last year—said that she couldn’t support funding for DHS, saying agents were “oppressing Americans.”
In a sign that frustration with the Trump administration’s approach extends across the aisle, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Andrew Garbarino (R., N.Y.) said that he has asked top DHS officials including Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott to testify before the panel. Rep. Michael McCaul (R., Texas) also called for an investigation.
Republican senators have largely backed the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, but there were signs of growing concern. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R., La.) said the “events in Minneapolis are incredibly disturbing” and called for a joint federal-state investigation. Sens. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina also joined the calls for a full investigation.
The office of Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) didn’t respond to a request for comment.
House Democrats are pushing their Senate colleagues to drive a hard bargain. Rep. Greg Casar (D., Texas), chair of the House progressive caucus, put out a list of key demands Sunday. They include a demand that immigration-enforcement officials leave Minneapolis and other cities; a full, independent investigation into the killings in Minneapolis; and no use of masks by federal agents.
Next week the Senate has been expected to take up six bills that fund the military and social services—the bulk of federal discretionary spending—for the remainder of fiscal 2026, which runs through September. Until the Saturday shooting, many Democrats had been expected to join Republicans in passing the measures, which have been bundled together as one vote.
The House last week passed the final four of the 12 annual spending bills, including those funding DHS and the Pentagon—typically a GOP priority—and the Labor Department and the Health and Human Services Department, whose priorities are favored by Democrats. Together, those four measures would provide more than $1.2 trillion of the more than $1.6 trillion in the government’s discretionary spending for fiscal 2026. The House packaged those four bills plus two more into a single measure and sent it to the Senate.
Voting against the DHS measure will do little in the short term to curtail immigration enforcement. Trump’s major legislative achievement—which he dubbed the “one big beautiful bill”—provided $4.1 billion to hire and train additional border-patrol agents. Republicans used a special procedure to pass that bill along party lines with no Democratic support.