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Senate Majority Leader John Thune announced that a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security is likely when the clock strikes midnight on Friday, due to a lack of agreement with Democrats on funding the agency.
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“We don’t have a solution yet,” Thune, R-S.D., told reporters outside the Senate floor Thursday afternoon. “The Democrats, at least at the moment … have no interest in funding the Department of Homeland Security.”
Thune said leadership had been seeking unanimous consent to pass yet another funding extension for the department, but Democrats would not provide the votes.
At the end of the week, funding from the current short-term stopgap funding extension will expire, leaving the Coast Guard, national disaster response teams, and cybersecurity infrastructure unfunded.
The budget reconciliation bill passed in July 2025 has already provided billions in funding for border security and deportation operations under DHS’ umbrella.
Democrats have demanded restrictions on immigration law enforcement officers in the wake of the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
The White House and Senate Republicans have engaged with Senate Democrats’ demands for concessions, such as prohibiting mask use and requiring judicial warrants for deportations.
“The White House made, I think, what was a good faith effort … to try to get to an answer here … that will allow the government to stay open, and that was rejected by Democrats today,” said Thune.
“The idea of not even allowing us to have an extended amount of time to negotiate this suggests to me, at least, that there isn’t a high level of interest in actually solving this issue.”
Thune added that the White House had provided legislative text the night before to Democrats that attempted to address their concerns, but “so far they’re not getting any kind of response from Democrats, even allowing us to continue this and allow the government to stay open.”
The Senate will recess next week, but Thune says he has told senators to “be available to get back here if there’s some sort of a deal they strike.”
On an optimistic note, Thune added, “I’m encouraged to hear that they [Democrats] are actually going to put together … a counterproposal” for DHS funding.
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This article was originally published at the Daily Signal. Photo Credit: USDA photo by Tom Witham.
