The House approved a more than $1 trillion spending package 217 to 214, with 21 Democrats joining Republicans, and President Trump signed it into law soon after. The legislation funds most of the federal government’s major departments through the end of the fiscal year in September and includes a short-term measure that keeps the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) running only until Feb. 13.
The broader bill finances the Pentagon, Health and Human Services, Transportation, Education, and Housing and Urban Development, among others. Lawmakers said the roughly 10-day window provided by the DHS stopgap is intended for negotiations over federal immigration enforcement following the deaths of Renee Macklin Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last month.
Democrats are pressing for changes such as requiring body-worn cameras for officers, banning tactics that conceal officers’ identities, and mandating judicial warrants for certain enforcement operations. While body cameras draw bipartisan support, Republicans have pushed back on some of the other Democratic demands, setting up difficult talks ahead.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune and other senior Republicans have signaled that another short-term homeland security bill is likely to be needed. Observers also noted that even without further appropriations, significant funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement remains in place: last year’s Republican tax and spending package included about $75 billion for ICE over four years.
The deal prevented a longer lapse in funding. Before the second deadly Minneapolis shooting, the remaining appropriations bills had been expected to clear Congress with bipartisan backing. Lawmakers were eager to avoid repeating last fall’s 43-day shutdown; that impasse had ended with partial funding agreements through September and a brief extension through January for the remainder of the government.
Democratic appropriators praised the final package for blocking deep cuts the administration had sought. For example, the administration proposed roughly a 50% reduction to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the enacted bill preserves the CDC’s funding at essentially current levels.
The sequence of votes was complicated by the Minneapolis shootings. The House had already passed the final spending measures and sent them to the Senate, but Senate Democrats vowed to withhold votes on homeland security funding until reforms were negotiated. At the eleventh hour, Senate Democrats and the White House agreed to separate funding for most of the government from the homeland security bill. Because the House was in recess and could not immediately approve the separated measures, parts of the government briefly ran out of money. With the House back in session, the agreement moved forward, but it remains fragile in a chamber where Republicans hold only a slim majority.