Washington — The Senate reached an agreement Thursday to move forward with a government funding package while negotiations continue over reforms to immigration enforcement in the wake of the Minneapolis shooting last weekend, a Senate Democratic source told CBS News.
The deal includes removing a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security from a broader package of six spending bills covering other parts of the government, while extending funding for DHS at current levels for two weeks, the source says.
Congress is facing a late Friday deadline to either pass the six spending bills or face a partial government shutdown. Since any deal that the Senate passes will need to return to the House, and the lower chamber is not set to return until Monday, lawmakers could narrowly miss that deadline. Still, the emerging deal could prevent a dispute over DHS funding from causing a longer-term shutdown.
President Trump quickly announced his support for the agreement and called on lawmakers to pass it.
“Hopefully, both Republicans and Democrats will give a very much needed Bipartisan ‘YES’ Vote,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The deal came together after Democrats blocked the package from advancing Thursday morning, joined by a number of Republicans who bucked their leadership to air grievances with the package or the emerging deal with Democrats.
The original six-bill package was expected to easily pass the upper chamber before Border Patrol agents fatally shot Alex Pretti in Minnesota last weekend. Democrats had since been unwilling to support the package if it included the Homeland Security bill, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Senate Democrat, confirmed to CBS News the plan is for the Senate to take up five funding bills — which cover the Pentagon, the State Department and a litany of other agencies — for now. He said the bill to fund the DHS for this fiscal year “will be considered at a separate occasion.”
“In the meantime, negotiations will start to change the way ICE is operating and the Department of Homeland Security is operating in Minnesota and across the country,” Durbin said on “The Takeout with Major Garrett.”
This is a breaking story; it will be updated.