Democrats and White House have reached an agreement to temporarily fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), avoiding a partial government shutdown. They are now negotiating new restrictions for President Donald Trump’s surge of immigration enforcement.
Lawmakers, meanwhile, are rushing to pass a massive spending package by Friday to avert the shutdown. Following the deal, Trump wrote on Truth Social, “Republicans and Democrats have come together to get the vast majority of the government funded until September.”
This comes after Democrats had voted to block legislation to fund the DHS on Thursday, following the violence in Minneapolis that saw Alex Pretti gunned down by Border Patrol agents and Renee Nicole Good lose her life after ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot her.
Here's when the DHS stopgap bill could pass in the House and Senate.
DHS stopgap bill: When could it pass in House and Senate?
The bill could pass in the Senate on Friday, as a deal has been struck today. However, the House is only back in session on February 2, meaning there could be a brief partial shutdown over the weekend. This is because the House also needs to give its nod before the DHS stopgap bill can be passed.
Also Read | Katy Perry urges fans to block ICE $10bn funding, shares how to ‘turn anger into action’
{{/usCountry}}The bill could pass in the Senate on Friday, as a deal has been struck today. However, the House is only back in session on February 2, meaning there could be a brief partial shutdown over the weekend. This is because the House also needs to give its nod before the DHS stopgap bill can be passed.
Also Read | Katy Perry urges fans to block ICE $10bn funding, shares how to ‘turn anger into action’
{{/usCountry}}Speaker Mike Johnson has said he's ‘awaiting Senate action’ to call back the House for a potential vote on what the Senate decides to send back to the lower cabinet. “We may have trouble getting everybody back this weekend. We typically have a 72 hour notice,” Bloomberg reported him say.
Meanwhile, he told Associated Press he was ‘vehemently opposed’ to breaking up the funding package. Johnson said “if it is broken up, we will have to move it as quickly as possible. We can’t have the government shut down.”
US House and Senate: A look at the numbers
Both the US House and Senate have a Republican majority, with the GOP holding onto 53 seats in the upper cabinet, leaving the Democrats with 45. In the lower chamber, Republicans have 218 seats and Democrats have 213.
While Republicans had sought a 6-week CR, Democrats haggled and it ultimately came down to a two-week timeframe.