Congress approved a spending package Tuesday afternoon that secures funding for the vast majority of federal agencies through September, ending the second government shutdown in the span of four months.
But what’s left unfinished — funding for the Department of Homeland Security — will be a doozy, with partisan tensions over President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda threatening another lapse for the embattled department that also includes TSA, FEMA and other crucial agencies.
The package the House passed in a bipartisan 217-214 vote Tuesday afternoon funds DHS only through next week. Democrats are refusing to support months of additional cash until Republicans agree to rein in immigration agents following the fatal shootings last month of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota.
If Republicans don’t concede to enacting significant new mandates for DHS by the new Feb. 13 deadline, the department many Democrats have called “rogue” will face another funding lapse or short-term patch.
