Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced that Senate Democrats would not support a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security following a fatal shooting involving a border patrol agent in Minnesota on a Saturday. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Schumer, in a statement on Saturday, said that Democrats tried to get "common sense reforms" in the DHS funding bill, but charged that "because of Republicans’ refusal to stand up to President Trump, the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses" of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
"I will vote no," Schumer said. "Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the DHS funding bill is included."
Schumer’s play call serves as a blow to Senate Republicans, who worked with their colleagues across the aisle to find compromises in the DHS bill, in particular. It also comes as the deadline to fund the government is rapidly approaching on Friday, Jan. 30. Further complicating matters is the arctic storm ripping across the country, which has already forced the upper chamber to cancel votes on Monday.
A senior Senate aide told Fox News Digital that Senate Democrats had been for weeks saying that they weren’t interested in shutting the government down again, and had praised the bipartisan nature of the government funding process up until Saturday.
"These bills were negotiated with Dems — they agreed to what’s in them," they said.
HOUSE JAMS SENATE BY ATTACHING REPEAL OF JACK SMITH PROVISION TO $1.2T FUNDING PACKAGE
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., holds a news conference following a House Republican Conference meeting at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 13, 2026 in Washington, DC. The Republicans spoke on I.C.E. operations in Minnesota, affordability and upcoming government funding legislation. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
A provision was added to the legislation before it passed the House that would combine the bills into one large package for the Senate to consider at once. It was then expected to be paired with other bills the Senate has not yet considered but which passed the House this month.
Changing that ahead of the Jan. 30 shutdown deadline would mean House lawmakers must return to Washington early to go through multiple procedural hurdles and another vote on the legislation — something House GOP leaders are ruling out, at least for now.
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"We passed all 12 bills over to the Senate, and they still have six in their possession that they need to pass to the president," a House GOP leadership source told Fox News Digital on Saturday evening, referring to the lower chamber completing its portion of Congress’ annual appropriations process. "We have no plan to come back next week."
Even if House leaders changed their plans, the impending snow storm would mean lawmakers may not return until Tuesday at the earliest. That would put final passage sometime Wednesday or Thursday, virtually guaranteeing Congress does not complete consideration of the bills until after the Friday deadline.
House GOP leaders would also likely be grappling with attendance issues if they did order a return, with various lawmakers on planned trips and over a dozen busy campaigning for higher office.
A partial government shutdown would mean only agencies that Congress has not yet funded would have to reduce or cease functions — in this case, payment to active duty troops, air traffic controllers, and border patrol agents could all be affected.
Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-dems-revolt-against-dhs-funding-bill-amid-minneapolis-chaos-dramatically-hiking-government-shutdown-ri