Lawmakers left Washington for a long weekend without resolving an impasse over much-criticized agency’s funding
The Department of Homeland Security has begun a partial shutdown, after funding for the much-criticized agency expired, with a range of services, including domestic flights and the US Coastguard, now vulnerable to disruption.
The shutdown was all but confirmed on Thursday, after the Senate failed to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to pass the DHS appropriations bill and lawmakers left Washington for a long weekend without resolving the impasse.
Democrats say they won’t help approve more funding until new restrictions are placed on federal immigration operations after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis last month.
Ideally, the Democrats would simply refuse to negotiate at all - as far as I am concerned, their demands are the bare minimum, and if those aren’t met I would rather DHS just stay shut down indefinitely. I feel bad for the TSA workers, air traffic controllers, and FEMA workers, but if them quitting en masse after too long without pay is what it takes to grind things to enough of a halt to get some real changes made, it is better than having to shut down all federal workers, which would still be an acceptable method IMHO.
Also, can anyone explain why the Big Ugly Bill means this doesn’t affect funding for ICE/CBP/etc? I don’t understand how they can be part of DHS but separately funded. AFAIK, the shutdown discussions are related to raising the debt ceiling, and even though Congress has allocated all those insane billions to immigration enforcement, it’s all still borrowed money. I’m sure there is an explanation that makes sense, but I have yet to hear it elucidated.