President Donald Trump and Senate Democrats said Thursday an agreement has been reached to fund the federal government as a Friday midnight deadline for a partial shutdown approaches.
The deal would provide funding through Sept. 30 for most departments and agencies, while providing a short-term stopgap for the Department of Homeland Security.
“I am working hard with Congress to ensure that we are able to fully fund the Government, without delay,” Trumpposted on Truth Social. “Hopefully, both Republicans and Democrats will give a very much needed Bipartisan ‘YES’ Vote.”
A spokesperson for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the deal would provide a two-week extension of current DHS funding levels, giving lawmakers time to negotiate new restrictions on the department’s immigration enforcement operations.
The agreement hasn’t been announced on the Senate floor as party leaders try to arrange for swift passage, possibly as soon as Thursday night. Senate GOP leadership aides said they are surveying members to try to shake loose any potential snags or amendment requests.
Even if the Senate quickly passes the deal, a partial government shutdown could still happen early Saturday morning, since the House is in recess and not scheduled to return until Monday. Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday it will take days to bring his members back into town, though Trump’s endorsement could help speed things along.
Leadership aides reiterated after Trump’s announcement that they still expect the earliest they will be able to hold votes on the agreement is next week, which would guarantee a brief partial shutdown.
Stripping the full-year DHS bill out of the larger six-bill package is a victory for Senate Democrats, who are unified behind demands for enforcement policy changes after federal agents deployed to Minnesota fatally shot 37-year-old Alex Pretti last week.
But Democratic leaders are still in negotiations with the White House over exactly what policy changes they want signed into law in return for their support for a long-term bill. Though Republicans have signaled they are open to some of the ideas Democrats have proposed, including requiring independent investigations, some in the GOP are raising warning flags about a fight to come.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters Thursday that while he was “willing to entertain some reforms … the cancer that we’re dealing with is sanctuary-city policy.” Graham is demanding a vote to crack down on those jurisdictions that don’t comply with federal immigration laws, an idea Trump also backed this month.
Republicans are already bracing for the possibility of another weeks-long stopgap for DHS if a deal isn’t reached by mid-February. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) went further, predicting that after the two-week stopgap “part of the government is just going to stay shut down.”
If Thursday’s deal is enacted, Congress will have approved full-year funding for more than 95 percent of the agencies it funds on an annual basis — leaving unfinished only the DHS spending measure.
If the package isn’t enacted before the Friday night deadline, a shutdown will hit all federal agencies that weren’t covered in the six funding bills Congress already enacted for the current fiscal year.
Agencies already funded include the departments of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, Justice, Interior, Commerce and Energy, as well as the EPA, water programs, federal science initiatives, the FDA and the operations of Congress itself.
Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.
