Government shutdown threat grows after Minneapolis shooting
Congress is facing a partial government shutdown fight after the shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis complicated a funding deal.
The country is hurtling toward another partial shutdown as lawmakers wrestle over a massive spending package that must pass by Friday, Jan. 30.
Just last week, the six-measure bill appeared poised to clear Congress, but the killing of a second Minnesotan by federal agents has thrown Capitol Hill into chaos as Senate Democrats demand that funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) be removed from the package.
Hours after ICU nurse Alex Pretti, 37, was fatally shot by at least one federal agent during a protest in Minneapolis on Jan. 24, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said Democrats wouldn’t support the spending package unless the DHS funding provision was revised or removed from the package to allow time for future negotiations.
Pretti’s death was the second fatal shooting this month by federal agents in the Twin Cities, who were deployed as part of President Donald Trump‘s aggressive immigration action. On Jan. 7, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old poet, at a protest.
Why is the government approaching a shutdown?
For weeks, Congress has been staring down a Jan. 30 deadline to pass a collection of appropriation bills that would keep the government running.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted Jan. 22 to send the spending package to the Senate; however, Democratic discontent around the DHS funding provision had been simmering for weeks in response to Good’s death. Republicans largely backed the DHS funding bill, aided by seven Democrats.
But Pretti’s killing tipped the scales for Senate Democrats, who are now refusing to back more funding for the agency, which oversees federal immigration enforcement and has played a leading role in Trump’s aggressive immigration tactics.
It was already an eleventh-hour scramble in Congress to get the last of its appropriations bills passed in less than a week by the Jan. 30 deadline. Even before news broke of Pretti’s death, weather-related disruptions had squeezed the timeline − a Senate vote on Monday, Jan. 26, was canceled due to the winter storm.
What do Senate Democrats want?
Senate Democrats on Wednesday, Jan. 28, outlined three main demands for reforming DHS, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
They are demanding greater accountability for ICE and Border Patrol, including independent investigations and stricter standards for the use of force. Senate Democrats also want sweeping immigration checks known as “roving patrols” to end, and for officers to turn their body cameras on and operate without wearing face masks.
Schumer and the president were reportedly in talks the evening of Wednesday, Jan. 28, to try to reach a deal to avert a shutdown, according to reports from the New York…
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