When a lengthy government shutdown came to end in the fall, members created a new deadline of Jan. 30 to keep federal operations going through the end of the fiscal year. By and large, with little appetite among either party for another shutdown, the appropriations process ran relatively smoothly.
Then federal immigration agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, and everything changed quickly. Late Saturday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement that the Democratic conference would oppose a pending spending package if it includes funding for the Department of Homeland Security. The New York Democrat added that he and his members expect an overhauled bill to include “common sense reforms.”
It wasn’t long before observers raised the obvious follow-up question: What kind of reforms, specifically, are Democratic senators looking for?
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut appeared on Greg Sargent’s podcast at The New Republic, where the two talked about five proposals circulating among offices on Capitol Hill:
- requiring federal immigration officers to get warrants for arrests
- requiring federal agents to identify themselves
- requiring Department of Homeland Security personnel to cooperate with state and local investigations
- requiring Customs and Border Protection officers to focus exclusively on the border and ports, as opposed to working in communities
- restricting immigration officers from operating in sensitive places, such as schools and houses of worship
Murphy didn’t explicitly say that Democrats would demand all of these reforms, but the Connecticut Democrat did conclude, “That is certainly a package that unites a lot of Democrats.”
Time will tell whether the party coalesces around these ideas and how the congressional Republican majority responds, but with Friday’s deadline quickly approaching, there are a limited number of possible outcomes.
Republicans might, for example, ignore Democratic demands and allow a partial government shutdown to begin at midnight, Jan. 30. They might conclude that there are too many issues to work out and, with calendar limitations in mind, agree to a temporary stopgap spending bill to prevent a government shutdown while negotiations continue.
Republicans might agree to carve out DHS funding from the larger funding package, allowing the rest of the bill to advance while negotiations continue. Or they might just cave and adopt the reforms Democrats want.
No one can say with confidence which of these scenarios is the most likely, but we won’t have to wait too long to find out. Watch this space.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
