Senate leaders scramble to save bipartisan deal and avert partial
government shutdown at midnight
[January 30, 2026]
By MARY CLARE JALONICK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate leaders were scrambling to save a bipartisan
spending deal and avert a partial government shutdown at midnight Friday
as Democrats have demanded new restrictions on federal immigration raids
across the country.
Democrats struck a rare deal with President Donald Trump Thursday to
separate funding for the Homeland Security Department from a broad
government spending bill and fund it for two weeks while Congress
debates curbs on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
The deal came as irate Democrats had vowed to vote against the entire
spending bill and trigger a shutdown in the wake of the deaths of two
protesters at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis.
“Republicans and Democrats have come together to get the vast majority
of the government funded until September” while extending current
funding for Homeland Security, Trump said in a social media post
Thursday evening. He encouraged members of both parties to cast a “much
needed Bipartisan ‘YES’ vote.”
Trump had said earlier in the day that “we don't want a shutdown.”
Still, passage of the agreement was delayed late Thursday as Senate
leaders were still working to win enough support for the package.
Leaving the Capitol just before midnight Thursday after hours of
negotiations, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said there were “snags
on both sides” as he and Democratic leader Chuck Schumer tried to work
through any objections that could delay passage past the Friday
deadline.
“Hopefully people will be of the spirit to try and get this done
tomorrow,” Thune said as the Senate was scheduled to reconvene on
Friday.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said late Thursday that he was one of the
senators objecting. He said ICE agents were being treated unfairly and
he opposed House language repealing a new law that gives senators the
ability to sue the government for millions of dollars if their personal
or office data is accessed without their knowledge.
Rare bipartisan talks
The unusual bipartisan talks between Trump and Schumer, his frequent
adversary, came after the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti in
Minnesota over the weekend and calls by senators in both parties for a
full investigation. Schumer called it “a moment of truth.”
“What ICE is doing, outside the law, is state-sanctioned thuggery and it
must stop,” Schumer said Thursday. “Congress has the authority — and the
moral obligation — to act.”
The standoff has threatened to plunge the country into another shutdown,
just two months after Democrats blocked a spending bill over expiring
federal health care subsidies. That dispute closed the government for 43
days as Republicans refused to negotiate.
That shutdown ended when a small group of moderate Democrats broke away
to strike a deal with Republicans, but Democrats are more unified this
time after the fatal shootings of Pretti and Renee Good by federal
agents.
Republicans were more willing to make a deal, as well, as several of
them said they were open to new restrictions after the two fatal
shootings.
Democrats lay out demands
Democrats have laid out several demands, asking the White House to “end
roving patrols” in cities and coordinate with local law enforcement on
immigration arrests, including requiring tighter rules for warrants.
They also want an enforceable code of conduct so agents are held
accountable when they violate rules. Schumer said agents should be
required to have “masks off, body cameras on” and carry proper
identification, as is common practice in most law enforcement agencies.
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With a partial government shutdown looming by week's end, Senate
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., joined at right by Sen. Alex
Padilla, D-Calif., confers with an aide following a closed-door
meeting with fellow Democrats on spending legislation that funds the
Department of Homeland Security and other government agencies as the
country, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP
Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Earlier on Thursday, Tom Homan, the president’s border czar, stated
during a press conference in Minneapolis that federal immigration
officials are developing a plan to reduce the number of agents in
Minnesota, but this would depend on cooperation from state
authorities.
Still far apart on policy
If the deal moves forward, negotiations down the road on a final
agreement on the Homeland Security bill are likely to be difficult.
Democrats want Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown to end. “If
the Trump administration resists reforms, we shut down the agency,”
said Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
But Republicans are unlikely to agree to all of the Democrats'
demands.
North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis said he is opposed to requiring
immigration enforcement officers to show their faces, even as he
blamed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for decisions that he
said are “tarnishing” the agency’s reputation.
“You know, there’s a lot of vicious people out there, and they’ll
take a picture of your face, and the next thing you know, your
children or your wife or your husband are being threatened at home,”
Tillis said.
Graham said some of the Democratic proposals “make sense,” such as
better training and body cameras. Still, he said he was putting his
Senate colleagues “on notice” that if Democrats try to make changes
to the funding bill, he would insist on new language preventing
local governments from resisting the Trump administration’s
immigration policies.
“I think the best legislative solution for our country would be to
adopt some of these reforms to ICE and Border Patrol,” Graham posted
on X. But he said that the bill should also end so-called “sanctuary
city” policies.
Uncertainty in the House
Across the Capitol, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told The Associated
Press on Thursday that he had been “vehemently opposed” to breaking
up the funding package, but “if it is broken up, we will have to
move it as quickly as possible. We can’t have the government shut
down.”
On Thursday evening, at a premiere of a movie about first lady
Melania Trump at the Kennedy Center, Johnson said he might have some
“tough decisions” to make about when to bring the House back to
Washington to approve the bills separated by the Senate, if they
pass.
“We’ll see what they do,” Johnson said.
House Republicans have said they do not want any changes to the bill
they passed last week. In a letter to Trump on Tuesday, the
conservative House Freedom Caucus wrote that its members stand with
the Republican president and ICE.
“The package will not come back through the House without funding
for the Department of Homeland Security,” they wrote.
___
Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro, Kevin Freking, Stephen
Groves, Joey Cappelletti, Seung Min Kim, Michelle L. Price and
Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
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