Senators have reached a deal they hope will avoid a lengthy government shutdown and allow time to negotiate reforms to the Department of Homeland Security.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
All right, the Senate is scrambling to finalize a deal that will keep funding flowing to much of the government and address bipartisan distrust over President Trump’s immigration enforcement tactics. But even as senators say that they have an agreement to do that, a partial government shutdown is still all but inevitable, at least for a short time. NPR congressional reporter Sam Gringlas joins us now from the Capitol. Hi, Sam.
SAM GRINGLAS, BYLINE: Hey, Ailsa.
CHANG: OK, so what exactly has been agreed to at this point?
GRINGLAS: OK, so Congress already approved several spending bills. This deal focuses on six of them that have not been approved yet, but these bills that are left account for huge swaths of the government, including the Pentagon, Health and Human Services and Homeland Security, which includes Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. So what the Senate is going to do is vote to fund almost everything through September. But Homeland Security funding will be extended only for two weeks, and that’ll allow lawmakers to negotiate some guardrails for federal immigration enforcement. Senate Republicans and Democrats are on board, and President Trump tonight posted that he is too.
CHANG: OK, so there is a deal, but, Sam, that usually means a shutdown is averted. So explain why that is not the case here.
GRINGLAS: The deadline to do all of this is at midnight tomorrow, but the House has to sign off again once the Senate completes its work because they sent all the spending bills over to the Senate tied together, and so the House has to approve this plan too. The problem is that the House is on recess until Monday, and it’s not clear if they could come back any earlier. So funding to all the agencies in the middle of this is going to stop, at least for a little bit.
CHANG: At least for a little bit. That’s where we are. OK, so do we know what the actual impact of even a very short shutdown would be?
GRINGLAS: So you know how I mentioned that a handful of spending bills were already done? That means, for example, the Department of Agriculture is funded, and so food aid won’t be affected this time around. But at stake right now are still some really key agencies like the Pentagon and Health and Human Services. Though if the shutdown is short, it is less likely that we’re going to see, you know, federal workers missing paychecks like we did last time.
CHANG: Absolutely. OK, explain more about, like, why did Republicans come around to a deal, and why were Democrats willing to risk a shutdown?
GRINGLAS: You know, just a week ago, Congress was on track to easily approve all these final spending bills. But the second deadly shooting in Minneapolis by federal immigration officers really upended that. You know, Democrats, who still had heartburn from the shutdown last time over health subsidies in the fall – including those who voted with Republicans to end it – now said that they would be willing to withhold their support for the funding without these policy changes to immigration enforcement. Democrats think the public is on their side here and that the issue has captured their attention, you know, even more than that health debate did last fall.
CHANG: Yeah.
GRINGLAS: And, you know, more Republicans have also acknowledged that what was unfolding in Minneapolis just couldn’t be ignored and saw their party losing ground on an issue that they felt like they used to really own.
CHANG: OK, so once the House approves this plan, that leaves – what? – just two weeks before Homeland Security funding runs out again.
GRINGLAS: Yep.
CHANG: Am I right?
GRINGLAS: Yep, yep. So lawmakers will have this very short window then to agree on some, you know, knotty policy questions like should the law expressly require immigration agents have judicial warrants? Should officers be required to wear body cameras? And how should incidents be investigated, and how should officers be held accountable? So a lot to wrap up in just two weeks.
CHANG: Yeah. That is NPR’s Sam Gringlas. Thank you so much, Sam.
GRINGLAS: Thanks, Ailsa.
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