Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Democrats don't appear ready to thrust the government into another shutdown, arguing that they would rather work in their own funding priorities to annual spending bills. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
While the powers that be may have a momentary truce, it’s rank-and-file members who could drive Washington, D.C. to the edge of another shutdown.
Many of the issues lie within the DHS funding bill, which Democratic negotiators argued included several wins in their quest to rein in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). That bill passed through the House Thursday, with tepid support from House Democrats.
Only seven broke from their colleagues, a sign that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his leadership team will have their work cut out for them in the upcoming week. And now, they’ll have to wrangle Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who on Friday announced in a statement that he would not back the broader package.
Kaine wanted to see a much broader swath of constraints baked into the behemoth funding package, including safeguards against Trump’s war powers, the firing of federal workers, and DHS and ICE retribution against his home state.
SENATE ADVANCES $174B PACKAGE AS MINNESOTA ICE SHOOTING FUELS DHS FUNDING FIGHT
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., is breaking ranks from his party and plans not to support the upcoming, colossal spending package as the deadline to fund the government rapidly approaches. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
"Democrats have no obligation to support a bill that not only funds the dystopian scenes we are seeing in Minneapolis but will allow DHS to replicate that playbook of brutality in cities all over this country," Murphy said.
Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Katie Britt, R-Ala., told Fox News Digital in a statement that "importantly, this bill contains no Democrat poison pills."
"I’m hopeful my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will do what’s right and not further politicize this process," Britt said.
Still, leaders on both sides are hopeful that the weight of the broader package, which will include defense funding, is enough to keep lawmakers in line and avoid a shutdown.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who is the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, argued that while the package was not exactly what she and Democrats had hoped for, it was good enough to support.
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That’s because she and congressional Democrats were able to bake in their own restrictions on funding that would not be adhered to if Congress again has to turn to another short-term funding bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR).
"While there’s a whole lot more I wish these bills would have addressed, these compromise bills protect critical investments in the American people, reject truly heartless cuts that would have undone decades of progress —and they are a significantly better outcome than another year-long CR," Murray said. "I look forward to ensuring they get signed into law."
Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-democrats-rebel-against-own-leadership-over-dhs-funding-package-increasing-shutdown-odds