With just four days to go before funding runs out, Washington is bracing for a potential shutdown at the department of homeland security. NTD’s Chris Bob reports. -- 📺 Watch NTD News 24/7 on cable, broadcast, and streaming: https://www.ntd.com/watch
It's just four days to go before funding runs out. Washington is bracing for a potential shutdown
at the Department of Homeland Security. NTD's Chris Bobb reports. On this vote the A's are 217
and A's are 214. Last Tuesday the House narrowly passed a two-week measure to keep the Department
of Homeland Security funded until February 13th. Now Congress has three options. Lock in full-year
funding for DHS, buy more time with another short-term stopgap measure, or let the department's
workforce, which exceeds 260,000, slide into a shutdown. Democratic leaders have framed their
discussions around DHS funding for immigration and customs enforcement. Although should DHS shut down,
ICE operations would likely continue largely uninterrupted. Congress last year approved
$75 billion for ICE through President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act,
funds that can be spent over four years on top of regular annual appropriations. For comparison,
in 2024, ICE received just under $10 billion in base congressional funding. Last week,
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sent a letter to
congressional GOP leadership laying out 10 demands for policy changes at ICE. They call
them, quote, common sense reforms and accountability measures required for Democrat support. The points
include mandating warrants for ICE enforcement, prohibiting masks on agents, requiring visible ID
at all times, protecting so-called sensitive locations, and ending what they call paramilitary
uniforms and equipment. The Democratic leaders also ask for what it calls good faith actions
from the Trump administration, including an end to the surge in Minnesota and the firing
of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said,
If for some reason the Department of Homeland Security ends up in a shutdown,
it is going to be totally on them. They will own it. We have tried repeatedly.
They have agreed repeatedly before they decided not to agree and to demand something else,
which they also got. But as of right now, we aren't anywhere close to having any sort of
agreement that would enable us to fund the Department of Homeland Security. The House
Appropriations Committee will hear from key federal agencies this Wednesday as they examine
the potential impact of a DHS shutdown. Agencies represented will include the Coast Guard,
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, TSA, Secret Service, and FEMA.
Reporting from Washington, D.C., Chris Bobb, NTD News.
