A failed Senate vote Thursday has set the stage for shutting down the Department of Homeland Security beginning at midnight tonight. Republicans tried to advance the same bill that the House approved last month, which would fund DHS through September. As expected, the proposal, which did not add any new curbs on immigration enforcement that Democrats have been pushing for, failed to draw the 60 votes necessary. The vote was 52 to 47, with Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) as the only Democratic senator to vote in favor.
The vote comes after a week of intense hearings, including a Thursday oversight hearing by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, where Chairman Rand Paul (R-KY) asked three top DHS officials to watch a frame-by-frame video of the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti. The three witnesses—ICE acting Director Todd Lyons, CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott and director of USCIS Joseph Edlow—also testified before the House Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday. The Senate committee also grilled a panel of Minnesota officials, including Attorney General Keith Ellison, Rep. Tom Emmer, state Rep. Harry Niska and Paul Schnell, the commissioner of Minnesota’s Department of Corrections.
Republicans had hoped that Democrats would be swayed by Thursday’s announcement by Tom Homan, border czar, that the Trump administration would pull immigration agents out of Minnesota. But Senate Democrats have remained firm that they will not support even a temporary funding measure without new guardrails. The House and Senate are both headed into a weeklong recess, meaning a funding lapse for DHS will begin Saturday morning, the third time in five months that parts of the government have been shut down. The shutdown will affect FEMA, CISA, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, and TSA. Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson said negotiations would continue and that members of Congress should be prepared to quickly return.