ICE Revolt Puts Government Shutdown Back on the Table

"Until very recently, the conventional wisdom about the expiration of stopgap-spending authority on January 30 was that nobody in either party wanted another government shutdown. That's why House and Senate Democratic and Republican negotiators managed to put together 12 more-or-less consensus appropriations bills covering all the operations of the federal government. Six of them have now been passed by both houses of Congress, and yesterday the other six cleared the House."

"But there was a hiccup in the House that might cause serious indigestion in the Senate. As protests against ICE tactics spread around the country and intensified among rank-and-file Democrats, House Democrats demanded and got a separate vote on spending for the Department of Homeland Security and came reasonably close to taking it down. In the end, seven Democrats joined all but one Republican in passing the DHS bill, but even some of the appropriators who negotiated the bill wound up voting against it."

"The House promptly adjourned in the expectation that the Senate would pass all six of the pending appropriations bills as a bloc, thus ending any partial government-shutdown threat. But Republicans will need at least seven and maybe eight Democratic senators to go along with them, and suddenly it's not so clear that will happen. Tim Kaine, a key figure in reopening the government in November, is rejecting any rubber-stamping:"

Negotiators in both parties assembled 12 consensus appropriations bills covering federal operations, with six bills passed by both chambers and the remaining six cleared by the House. House Democrats demanded a separate Department of Homeland Security spending vote amid nationwide protests over ICE tactics, nearly defeating the DHS measure. Seven Democrats joined all but one Republican to pass the DHS bill, while other negotiators and Democratic leadership opposed it. The House adjourned expecting the Senate to approve the six pending bills as a bloc to avoid a partial shutdown. Republicans will need seven or eight Democratic senators to reach 60 votes, and Tim Kaine refuses to endorse the package without significant amendment.

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