Well, you know what they say about best-laid plans. After the House passed Conferenced agreements on the remaining six FY 2026 appropriations bills and sent them to the Senate (and then the House promptly left town), it was expected that the Senate would pass them this week ahead of today’s January 30 funding deadline. But that was before there was another shooting death of an observer—Alex Pretti– by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis.

Now there is not enough support for the funding for Department of Homeland Security (DHS) FY2026 funding bill (which includes funding for ICE and Customs and Border Protection) to pass the Senate. A motion to proceed to the House-passed six-bill package failed to get 60 votes on Thursday. Democrats are calling for reforms to ICE officer actions, including the following: body cameras must be worn; ICE agents can’t wear masks in the field; and ICE’s “roving patrols” will be off-limits, and warrants will have tighter rules.

Some of the options available to Senate Majority Leader Thune (R-SD) are: separate out the other five funding bills (DOD, LHHS, Financial Services, National Security and Transportation) and pass those bills; put DHS under a CR; or shut down the government. Discussions between the Senate Democrats and the White House have lead to a tentative deal: the agreement would amend the FY’26 six-bill megabus, strip out the Homeland Security bill and fund that bill on a continuing resolution until February 13. The Senate has not yet taken up this deal; discussions are on-going. It seems there is no appetite for another government shutdown, but how this impasse will be addressed is unclear at this time.

As a reminder, both the Senate and the House need to pass the exact same package before it can be moved onto the President for signature. And…the House is out on recess until next week. (Given that—and that today is the deadline of the current continuing resolution– it seems there will be at least a brief shutdown through the weekend, though that is unlikely to disrupt many services.) More to come—stay tuned!