Senate Democrats are demanding that Republicans renegotiate the House-passed funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security. Federal disaster aid and mitigation programs could get caught in the crossfire.
The Democrats’ last-minute push to separate the fiscal 2026 Homeland Security legislation from a package of five other House-passed spending measures comes amid broader backlash to DHS’s immigration enforcement operations, which have left two people dead in Minnesota.
Some House Republicans have signaled they would be unwilling to revisit the Homeland Security bill they already passed, but Democrats are doubling down. The impasse significantly raises the chances of a partial shutdown this weekend, and DHS, which houses the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is among the agencies most likely to be impacted.
FEMA’s disaster recovery work would continue during a shutdown. But failure to pass the Homeland Security spending measure this week would indefinitely delay the enactment of fresh funding and directive language that lawmakers negotiated on a bipartisan basis for fiscal 2026.
That includes language to check FEMA’s efforts to cancel unilaterally or postpone disaster grants and reimbursements — something Democrats and disaster reform advocates fought for amid the Trump administration’s historic slow-walking of disaster aid.
Democrats say they’re clear-eyed about the impacts their gambit could have on FEMA, especially just days before Friday’s funding deadline. Still, the desire to push back on DHS violence, they say, supersedes any reservations about short-term impacts to disaster aid.
Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, has vowed to oppose a spending bill he helped craft as his party demands a renegotiated version.
“We can’t fund a lawless Department of Homeland Security,” Murphy said Tuesday evening. “I mean, just because there are important things in that bill doesn’t mean that I am forced to vote for a bill that also funds brazen illegality.”
Asked Tuesday whether he has concerns about undercutting FEMA to try to hold DHS accountable, Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), a vocal supporter of disaster funding, said he has “enormous concern.”
“No one wants a shutdown; we want accountability, and we have to have it,” Welch said. “If we get a separate vote, we’re going to be able to do that.”
The Senate is preparing to take an initial procedural vote on the full, six-bill appropriations package later this week.
Senate Republican leaders have floated the possibility of voting on the full spending package while promising Democrats a separate vote on legislation that would rein in some Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. Another solution could involve an agreement for the White House to implement specific changes at ICE.
But Democrats have not been satisfied by those proposals, and leaders Tuesday evening were not close to finding a bipartisan solution.
The appropriations package includes the Homeland Security, Defense, Financial Services-General Government, Labor-HHS-Education, State-Foreign Operations and Transportation-HUD bills. It covers the vast majority of discretionary federal funding.
Congress already passed six other fiscal 2026 bills, including the Energy-Water, Interior-Environment and Agriculture-FDA measures.
Disaster provisions in limbo
If senators cannot come to an agreement and a partial shutdown begins Saturday, FEMA’s disaster recovery work will continue as mandated by statute.
And because FEMA has delayed billions of dollars in reimbursements, the agency’s disaster relief fund is believed to still have roughly $7 billion left over from last year that it could tap into. Congress could also pass a supplemental funding bill to refill those coffers during a shutdown if necessary.
Still, the jettisoning of the fiscal 2026 Homeland Security bill this week would mean that the disaster relief fund would not immediately get the $26.4 billion infusion appropriators proposed for this fiscal year.
It would also leave in limbo a number of provisions meant to impose guardrails on the Trump administration’s handling of disaster dollars, including a section that would impose financial penalties on DHS if it unnecessarily delays reimbursements to states.
Appropriators included language in support of the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, which FEMA terminated last year without consulting appropriators. The program provides grants to help localities prevent disaster-related damage.
The spending measure would require a report “justifying forgoing long-term savings associated with investing in predisaster mitigation.”
If the Senate does not pass the entire six-bill funding package or a continuing resolution before Saturday, the authorization for the National Flood Insurance Program would lapse. Its expiration would affect thousands of homeowners and realtors who would be unable to buy, sell or renew flood insurance policies until Congress enacts a reauthorization.
Other programs that help Americans manage the impacts of extreme weather would be impacted, too, including the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, funding for climate and energy resilience on military bases, and millions of dollars in earmarks for local emergency operations and infrastructure projects.
Working toward a deal
Democrats say they do not want another shutdown, but their insistence on splitting up the House-passed spending package — and Republicans’ refusal so far to do so — could trigger one Saturday.
Senators on both sides of the aisle held separate meetings in the Capitol on Tuesday night to discuss potential paths forward. Some have signaled a desire to pass a supplemental funding bill with disaster aid and other funding if the DHS bill does not pass imminently.
“Democrats are ready to quickly pass the other five spending bills to keep government open — and ready to take action to ensure FEMA and other important agencies have the resources they need while urgent work to rein in ICE and [Customs and Border Protection] occurs,” said Senate Appropriations ranking member Patty Murray (D-Wash.) in a statement to POLITICO’s E&E News.
“This is the commonsense path forward that the vast majority of Americans support,” Murray added, “and it’s critical that Republicans work with us to get this done.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) urged members to keep the conversations going in the coming days. A number of Republicans have expressed concerns about DHS violence, and Thune is holding out hope that members of both parties can strike a deal with the White House.
“Productive talks are ongoing, and I urge my Democrat colleagues to continue their engagement and find a path forward that will avoid a needless shutdown and not jeopardize full funding for key agencies like FEMA and the Coast Guard,” Thune said on the Senate floor Tuesday.
He added, “We need to fund these and other essential agencies and finish our 2026 appropriations work now.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) appeared to reject any deal that relies on White House action, saying, “The fix should come from Congress.
“The public can’t trust the administration to do the right thing on its own, and Republicans and Democrats must work together to make that happen,” Schumer said.
In an additional sign that congressional leaders and appropriators are serious about finding a bipartisan solution, Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), chair of the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, said in a statement Monday that she “remain[s] committed to finding a pathway forward.”
