Homeland Security Dispute Looms in DC  01/16 06:22

   

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress is halfway home in approving government funding 
for the current budget year that began Oct. 1 after the Senate on Thursday 
overwhelmingly passed a three-bill package.

   Now comes the hard part. Lawmakers still must negotiate a spending bill for 
the Department of Homeland Security amid soaring tensions on Capitol Hill after 
the shooting of a Minnesota woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement 
agent.

   Lawmakers are working to complete passage of all 12 annual spending bills 
before Jan. 30, the deadline set in a funding patch that ended a 43-day 
government shutdown in November. With the Senate's action on Thursday, six of 
those bills have now passed through both chambers of Congress. The measure 
before the Senate passed by a broadly bipartisan vote of 82-15. It now goes to 
President Donald Trump to be signed into law.

   That recent success would greatly reduce the impact of a shutdown, in the 
unlikely event that there is one at the end of January, since lawmakers have 
now provided full-year funding for such agencies as the Departments of 
Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Interior and Justice.

   Lawmakers from both parties are determined to prevent another lapse in 
funding for the remaining agencies. The House's approval of a separate two-bill 
package this week nudges them closer to getting all 12 done in the next two 
weeks.

   "Our goal, Mr. President is to get all of these bills signed into law. No 
continuing resolutions that lock in previous priorities and don't reflect 
today's realities," said Sen. Susan Collins, the Republican chair of the Senate 
Appropriations Committee. "No more disastrous government shutdowns that are 
totally unnecessary and so harmful."

   ICE shooting inflames debate on funding

   The biggest hurdle ahead is the funding bill for the Department of Homeland 
Security. The plan was to bring that bill before the House this week, but Rep. 
Tom Cole, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said the decision 
was made to pull the bill and "buy some time" as lawmakers respond to the 
Minneapolis shooting.

   Democrats are seeking what Rep. Rosa DeLauro called "guardrails" that would 
come with funding for ICE.

   "We can't deal with the lawlessness and terrorizing of communities," said 
DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee. "We're going 
back and forth with offers, and that's where we are."

   Trump's deportation crackdown, focused on cities in Democratic-leaning 
states, has incensed many House Democrats who demand a strong legislative 
response. Last week, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and 
killed Renee Good in a shooting that federal officials said was an act of 
self-defense but that the mayor described as reckless and unnecessary.

   Some 70 Democrats have signed onto an effort to impeach Homeland Security 
Secretary Kristi Noem. Others are seeking specific changes to how the agency 
operates, such as requiring ICE agents to wear body cameras.

   "There are a variety of different things that can be done that we have put 
on the table and will continue to put on the table to get ICE under control so 
that they are actually conducting themselves like every other law enforcement 
agency in the country, as opposed to operating as if they're above the law, 
somehow thinking they've got absolute immunity," said Democratic leader Hakeem 
Jeffries.

   The Congressional Progressive Caucus, which includes nearly 100 Democratic 
members, formally announced opposition to any funding to immigration 
enforcement agencies within the Department of Homeland Security "unless there 
are meaningful and significant reforms to immigration enforcement practices."

   Looking for a solution

   Cole said any changes to the Homeland Security funding bill would need 
sign-on from the White House. He said one possible answer would be to let 
Democrats have a separate vote on the Homeland Security bill. If passed, it 
would then be combined with some other spending bills for transmittal to the 
Senate. Republicans used a similar procedural tactic to get a previous spending 
package over the finish line in the House.

   The options for Democrats on Homeland Security are all rather bleak. If 
Congress passes a continuing resolution to fund the agency at current levels, 
that gives the Trump administration more discretion to spend the money as it 
wants.

   Meanwhile, any vote to eliminate funding for ICE won't stop massive sums 
from flowing to the agency because Trump's tax cut and border security bill, 
passed last summer, injects roughly $170 billion into immigration enforcement 
over the next four years.

   Also, any vote to eliminate funding could put some Democrats in tough 
reelection battles in a difficult position this fall as Republicans accuse them 
of insufficiently supporting law enforcement.