Government hurtles toward a shutdown after fatal shooting

The U.S. government is nearing the brink of a partial shutdown by the end of the week after federal immigration agents shot and killed a U.S. citizen in Minnesota on Saturday, the second such incident this month.

The Senate is set to vote this week on a massive House-passed $1.2 trillion package to fund the Department of Homeland Security, along with a wide swath of government, before the Jan. 30 deadline. But the shooting of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis is now threatening to derail the funding package as a growing chorus of Democrats warns they will oppose it unless funding for the Department of Homeland Security is stripped out.

“I can’t vote for a bill that includes ICE funding under these circumstances,” said Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine who caucuses with Democrats and helped end last year’s 43-day shutdown, on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

“Take up DHS by itself, let’s have an honest negotiation, put some guardrails on what’s going on, some accountability, and that would solve this problem. We don’t have to have a shutdown,” he said.

King’s comments significantly raise the likelihood of a shutdown over DHS funding by the end of the week. He voted repeatedly to open the government during the last shutdown as his Democratic colleagues pushed for an extension of Obamacare subsidies.

The House of Representatives, which left Washington last week for a pre-scheduled recess after passing the bill, would need to return to approve any changes the Senate makes before the shutdown deadline. It’s unclear whether Republicans who control the House can or will do so.

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats have broadly threatened to tank the funding measure if it includes DHS funding.

“Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the DHS funding bill is included,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in a statement on Saturday night.

The funding package needs 60 votes to overcome the filibuster and pass the Senate. Republicans hold a 53-47 vote majority in the Senate, meaning Democratic support will be needed to pass the measure. Of the 47, two are independents who caucus with Democrats.

Some Democrats were already opposed to the funding measure, which, in addition to DHS, includes the departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Labor, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Education, State, and Treasury.

But Pretti’s death is rapidly galvanizing Democratic opposition to the measure.

“No, I am not voting for this funding,” said Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “Our Republican colleagues have to stand up and stop this.”

The top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, has also said she will oppose the package if it includes DHS funding. Murray warned earlier in the week that the “suggestion that a shutdown in this moment might curb the lawlessness of this administration is not rooted in reality.”

“Federal agents cannot murder people in broad daylight and face zero consequences,” Murray said on X Saturday. “I will NOT support the DHS bill as it stands. The DHS bill needs to be split off from the larger funding package before the Senate—Republicans must work with us to do that.”

It’s unclear if the Senate can split the DHS portion off from the rest of the funding bill to minimize a partial shutdown. While the House passed the DHS bill separately from the rest of the bills, they were all tied together into one bill to be sent to the Senate, meaning the majority Republicans would need to support splitting the bill up.

It’s still possible that enough Democrats join with Republicans to pass the funding bill and avoid a shutdown. Many of the other agencies in the package are important to Democrats.

DHS may also be less hindered during a shutdown if it taps the hundreds of billions of dollars that congressional Republicans injected into the agency as part of their “One Big Beautiful Bill” law passed last summer.

But that’s far from a guaranteed outcome. Several Democrats who joined with Republicans last year to end a record 43-day government shutdown have warned they will oppose the bill if it includes funding for DHS.

“I will not support the current Homeland Security funding bill,” said Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., who is one of the Democrats who joined Republicans to end the last shutdown. “Let’s pass the remaining five bipartisan bills and fund essential agencies while we continue to fight for a Department of Homeland Security that respects Americans’ constitutional rights and preserves federal law enforcement’s essential role to keep us safe.”  

Complicating matters further is a massive snowstorm over Washington, D.C., and wide stretches of the U.S. The Senate canceled votes on Monday due to the storm, shortening an already tight timeline to avoid a shutdown.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.