Trump and Senate Democrats Cut a Deal as the Shutdown Looms

The final six spending bills to fund the federal government for the next year were tested in the Senate on Thursday, January 29. They failed. But as a partial shutdown that could jeopardize military payroll yet again drew nigh, President Donald Trump and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) cut a deal.

While the test vote failed 45-55, now Schumer says Democrats will deliver the votes – on the five bills that don’t fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). They’ll also sign on to a continuing resolution (CR) for number six. It’s a bold move that buys America full-year funding for everything but DHS and allows a couple of weeks to work out the rest. But could the president’s compromise come back to bite him?

As Liberty Nation News’  Graham J Noble explained yesterday, about this time last week, “everything looked set.” The House passed the final six spending bills needed to fully fund the federal government for the next year with at least somewhat bipartisan support, and it seemed the same might happen in the Senate. Then came the shooting of Alex Pretti by an ICE agent in Minnesota, and it all fell apart. “On Jan. 28, they presented their new demands before the DHS bill could be packaged up and sent on its way,” Noble reported.

It took many hours of negotiating, during which President Trump intervened to strike a deal by supper time. The five other bills will have enough Democrats to pass, guaranteeing full funding for the Department of Defense (or War, as Trump renamed it), Treasury, State, Health and Human Services, Labor, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, and Education. The DHS funding bill will have to be renegotiated, but the deal includes a two-week CR to buy some time.

“I am working hard with Congress to ensure that we are able to fully fund the Government, without delay,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “Republicans and Democrats in Congress have come together to get the vast majority of the Government funded until September, while at the same time providing an extension to the Department of Homeland Security (including the very important Coast Guard, which we are expanding and rebuilding like never before).”

“Hopefully, both Republicans and Democrats will give a very much-needed Bipartisan ‘YES’ Vote,” he added. The Senate gaveled out for the night just after 11 p.m. Eastern and will reconvene at 11 a.m. Friday. After the regular pomp and circumstance that opens every session, the first order of business is calling this vote.

Assuming the next votes succeed, President Trump will likely sign the five funding bills into law on Friday, averting a shutdown of the included departments at the last minute. The CR to keep DHS afloat beyond January 30, however, will have to be passed by the House before it can be signed by the president.

So DHS funding will technically lapse, at least for a short time, but if the House takes it up as early as possible and passes it without too much dallying, the department won’t feel much, if any, of a practical interruption.

So, will the CR pass the House? Almost certainly. Democrats are on board, and Republicans have little choice but to pass the CR or shoulder the blame for funding everything but DHS – which would seem like a far more satisfying result for lawmakers on the political left. But then what? What will Democrats demand in order to pass an actual funding bill for DHS once there’s no other funding they want that can be threatened by Republicans as leverage? President Trump has tried to abolish the Department of Education, for example, making it a great option for the GOP to dangle as both carrot and stick to entice (or coerce) Democrats into playing ball.

DHS includes the Coast Guard, as the president pointed out in his Truth Social post, but it also comprises ICE and Border Patrol – the sources of the controversy driving the fight over funding. Should Democrats refuse to pass any spending at all for the department – or should they require steep enough cuts to both funding and power for immigration enforcement agencies – this could be the deal that comes back to bite President Trump and the Republican Party right in the midterms.