Congress releases massive funding bill ahead of shutdown deadline as ICE clash looms

WASHINGTON — Congressional negotiators in both parties released a massive bill Tuesday aimed at fully funding the government ahead of a shutdown deadline on Jan. 30.

The 1,059-page bipartisan bill includes money for the Pentagon and the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Homeland Security, and reduces the chances of another funding lapse after the longest shutdown in U.S. history last fall.

But the DHS measure is sure to be a point of contention for Democrats in the House and Senate, many of whom insisted they would reject any funding bill without policies to restrain ICE after an agent fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis this month.

“There should absolutely be reforms to ICE. And if there aren’t reforms, I’m going to be a hard no on that bill, the DHS bill,” Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., the No. 4 House Democrat, told NBC News last week ahead of the release of the bill.

The package would keep ICE funding essentially flat at $10 billion for the remainder of the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, even as the agency received $75 billion of additional money for detention and enforcement from Trump’s “big beautiful bill.”

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the top Democratic appropriator, acknowledged that the package did not include broad reforms to rein in ICE in a statement from her office announcing the bill. But she endorsed the package, saying it would prevent a partial shutdown and argued it did include some Democratic priorities.

The bipartisan deal allocates $20 million for the “procurement, deployment, and operations of body worn cameras” for ICE agents. And the bill “encourages” DHS to develop and implement a new uniform policy “to ensure that law enforcement officers are clearly identifiable as Federal law enforcement,” according to DeLauro’s office.

DeLauro said the bill also cuts funding for ICE enforcement and removal operations by $115 million and reduces the number of ICE detention beds by 5,500.

The House is expected to vote on the package later this week. DeLauro said that GOP leaders have promised to hold a separate vote on just the Homeland Security portion of the package, which would give Democrats an opportunity to oppose it, without moving Washington toward another shutdown.

“I understand that many of my Democratic colleagues may be dissatisfied with any bill that funds ICE,” DeLauro said in her statement. “I share their frustration with the out-of-control agency. I encourage my colleagues to review the bill and determine what is best for their constituents and communities.”

Democrats had sought policies such as requiring ICE agents to wear identification and barring masks during enforcement operations, as well as measures to prevent the detention and deportation of American citizens.

“The Homeland Security funding bill is more than just ICE. If we allow a lapse in funding, TSA agents will be forced to work without pay, FEMA assistance could be delayed, and the U.S. Coast Guard will be adversely affected,” DeLauro added.

So far, the House has passed eight of the 12 required full-year funding bills. Finishing this package would complete the appropriations work for the chamber, four months after the new fiscal year began.

The Senate, which returns to Washington next week, just days before the deadline, has passed half of the 12 funding bills. It will require 60 votes to avoid a partial government shutdown affecting the remaining agencies beginning on Jan. 31. Republicans have 53 senators.

The bipartisan deal released Tuesday also includes a package of health care changes that are largely backed by both parties, including more oversight of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), the middle-men overseeing prescription drug benefits.

Unlike the House, where the Republican majority could plausibly carry the contentious DHS bill on its own, the Senate will need Democratic support, requiring 60 votes to pass it.

“We cannot vote for anything that actually adds more money and doesn’t constrain ICE,” Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., said Sunday on CNN. “I can’t speak for everybody else, but if I have to shut down the portion of ICE — just to be clear, we’re not shutting down the rest of the government — the portion of ICE that is causing this kind of harm, racially profiling people, terrorizing our cities, I know the implications of that. I know the political implications potentially of that.”

“But we cannot keep funding this type of goon squads that are just spreading throughout the whole country just to enforce some weird policy position that Stephen Miller has, where he thinks that we have to punish blue cities,” he said.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said before the bill was released that he wouldn’t vote to give “one dime to support this lawless, brutal Trump ICE operation,” without “significant reforms to rein in this lawless ICE operation.”

“There was a federal judge that just this week said that ICE agents were violating people’s constitutional rights, right? They were preventing them from engaging in protected peaceful protest,” he said Sunday on ABC. “So, my view is there has to be dramatic change. I don’t foresee this administration doing that at this moment. So, I’m saying I won’t provide any funding.”