Washington — Congressional leaders have presented the final four measures needed to fund the government as lawmakers strive to prevent another shutdown by the end of the month. Congress has until January 30 to secure funding for remaining government agencies and programs after previously approving a three-bill funding package aimed at ending the longest government shutdown in history back in November, which largely extended funding temporarily.
Following that, the House and Senate successfully moved another three-bill funding package, and last week, the House advanced two additional funding measures, which are set to be addressed by the Senate upon its return to Washington next week.
On Tuesday, House and Senate appropriators unveiled the final suite of four bills, informally referred to as a “minibus.” This legislation is designed to fund several departments, including Defense; Labor, Health and Human Services, Education; Transportation; Housing and Urban Development; and Homeland Security.
Notably, the House decided to remove plans to include funding for the Homeland Security Department following the tragic shooting of Renee Good by an ICE officer in Minneapolis. This incident compelled Democrats to express reluctance in supporting the funding unless it included reforms for ICE. Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the leading Democratic appropriator in the Senate, emphasized that Democrats had successfully curbed GOP efforts to expand ICE’s budget.
“In this bill, Democrats defeated Republicans’ hard-fought push to give ICE an even bigger annual budget, successfully cut ICE’s detention budget and capacity, cut CBP’s budget by over $1 billion, and secured important, although still insufficient, new constraints on DHS,” Murray stated. The legislation also introduces new reporting requirements that limit DHS’s ability to allocate funds for immigration enforcement and establishes training requirements for officers. Additionally, it earmarks $20 million for body cameras for immigration enforcement agents.
However, Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the leading Democratic appropriator in the House, noted that some may be disappointed with any bill that funds ICE. Although she asserted that the current bill takes “several steps in the right direction,” she acknowledged it lacks the broader reforms that some Democrats wished to see.
Both appropriators argued that alternative funding options—either a continuing resolution to maintain government funding or a government shutdown—would not effectively rein in ICE, given the resources allocated in the previous One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year.
The House is expected to cast votes on the final funding measures before its recess at the end of the week, while funding for the Homeland Security department will likely be addressed separately. Following this, the package will move to the Senate, which has a limited timeframe to approve these six funding bills by January 30 before they are sent to the president for his approval.