Congress Resets for the Next Funding Fight
DHS Shutdown Remains Likely with Narrow Off Ramps
The brief four-day partial shutdown ended on Tuesday, but we’re already staring another one in the face as funding for DHS is set to expire next Friday. Republicans are refusing to acknowledge Democrats’ reforms to rein in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), much of which boils down to ending ICE’s secret police tactics and defending Americans’ constitutional rights. At least three polls in the last week (1, 2, 3) show the public broadly supportive of Democrats’ positions and opposing the Administration’s current immigration policies.
Amidst negotiations next week on potential off ramps, both the House and Senate Homeland Security Committees will welcome testimony from the leaders of ICE, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). What emerges from that testimony will surely shape the debate around forthcoming funding bills.
If Congress is unable to reach a deal on how to rein in ICE, one idea being floated would be to split off funding for non-immigration enforcement agencies of DHS, including TSA, FEMA, Coast Guard and other agencies. Whether an outcome of DHS not receiving annual funding (but relying instead on the slush fund it got in the One, Big Beautiful Bill Act) and proceeding without any substantial policy reforms could be seen as a win by all sides is unclear.
Trump Continues Weaponization of Government
President Trump continues to use OMB to attack his political opponents in new and crude ways.
In the last week, we’ve learned that Trump told Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer that he would release funding he has illegally frozen for the Gateway infrastructure project in New York and New Jersey if Schumer would endorse the idea of renaming Dulles Airport and New York’s Penn rail station after him. The project will stop today absent the funding flowing again and thousands of workers will lose their jobs.
Also this week, the Administration announced it was illegally canceling $1.5 billion in DOT and CDC grants to four states – California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota – for allegations of “waste and mismanagement” of taxpayer funds. These four states and New York already had more than $10 billion in child care funding frozen by the Trump Administration; the courts had issued a temporary restraining order that blocks the funding freeze that expires today.
The Administration still has a target on 14 states (including D.C.) controlled by Democrats after OMB issued a data call to agencies asking for any funding to state and local governments, nonprofits and universities in the state. We haven’t seen or heard any updates yet from OMB on how much information has come from this data call and what they’ll do next.
