Pictures of Alex Pretti sit in front of his home on Jan. 26, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Pretti, an ICU nurse at a VA medical center, died Jan. 25, after being shot multiple times during a brief altercation with Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday urged Senate Democrats to advance the government funding package that must become law before the weekend to avoid a partial shutdown, rejecting their proposal to remove the Homeland Security funding bill.
Democrats in the upper chamber say they are ready to help pass five of the six bills, but insist the Homeland Security spending measure must be stripped and renegotiated to include more constraints on federal immigration enforcement after officers killed a second American citizen in Minnesota this weekend.
“We absolutely do not want to see that funding lapse and we want the Senate to move forward with passing the bipartisan appropriations package that was negotiated on a bipartisan basis,” Leavitt said.
Negotiators in Congress have reached bipartisan consensus on each of the dozen full-year government spending bills during the last few months, though the final bills still need to clear the Senate and become law.
Funding for hundreds of programs in those measures lapses Friday at midnight, when the stopgap spending law Congress approved at the end of the last shutdown expires.
A partial shutdown would affect the Departments of Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, State, Transportation and Treasury. The Executive Office of the President, Supreme Court and judicial branch would also go without funding if a solution cannot be reached in time.
Leavitt said during the briefing that “policy discussions on immigration in Minnesota are happening” and pointed to the phone call that President Donald Trump and Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz had earlier in the day.
“But that should not be at the expense of government funding for the American people, which would include FEMA funding,” Leavitt said. “And we are in the midst of the storm that took place over the weekend and many Americans are still being impacted by that.”
The Homeland Security appropriations bill funds numerous programs in addition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. The Coast Guard, Federal Emergency Management Agency, National Flood Insurance Fund, Secret Service and Transportation Security Administration are among the other agencies that rely on the bill for budget authority.
Schumer demands removal of DHS bill
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in a statement that Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., should remove the Homeland Security funding bill from the larger package before the deadline to avoid a lapse in funding.
“The responsibility to prevent a partial government shutdown is on Leader Thune and Senate Republicans,” he wrote. “If Leader Thune puts those five bills on the floor this week, we can pass them right away. If not, Republicans will again be responsible for another government shutdown.”
Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, in a brief floor speech urged lawmakers from both political parties to vote to advance the full funding package, calling the possibility of another shutdown “harmful, unnecessary and disastrous.”
“I hope we can come together in a constructive way to get this done and to ensure that we do not lurch into a dangerous and detrimental government shutdown,” she said.
Collins did acknowledge the killing of Alex Pretti over the weekend, saying his “tragic death” had “refocused attention on the Homeland Security bill and I recognize that and share the concerns.”
“I do want to point out to my colleagues that there are many safeguards that have been put in this bill that I would encourage them to review,” Collins added without going into detail. “And that the vast majority of the funding in this bill, more than 80%, is for non-immigration and non-border security functions.”
A Senate Republican aide, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly, said GOP leaders are “determined to not have another government shutdown.”
“We will move forward as planned and hope Democrats can find a path forward to join us,” the aide added.
A Senate Democratic leadership aide said that “Republicans and the White House have reached out but have not yet raised any realistic solutions.”
‘Government shutdowns do not help anyone’
Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Katie Britt, R-Ala., wrote in a social media post that the array of programs in that bill “are critical to keeping Americans safe and must be funded.”
“We know from recent history that government shutdowns do not help anyone and are not in the best interest of the American people,” Britt wrote, referring to the shutdown of historic length that ended Nov. 12. “As we approach a government funding deadline, I remain committed to finding a pathway forward.”
Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union with Jake Tapper & Dana Bash” that he couldn’t “vote to fund this lawless Department of Homeland Security.”
“And remember, it’s not just in Minnesota. They’re violating the law all over the country,” Murphy said. “I spent last week in Texas where they are locking up 2-year-old and 3-year-old kids who are here in the United States legally, just for the purpose of traumatizing them.”
Fetterman, Shaheen part ways
Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman appeared to be the only member of his party in that chamber to support the entire package, writing in a statement he “will never vote to shut our government down, especially our Defense Department.”
“I reject the calls to defund or abolish ICE. I strongly disagree with many strategies and practices ICE deployed in Minneapolis, and believe that must change,” Fetterman wrote. “I want a conversation on the DHS appropriations bill and support stripping it from the minibus. It is unlikely that will happen and our country will suffer another shutdown.”
New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen backed the strategy of pulling out the Homeland Security spending bill and allowing the other five government funding bills to become law before the shutdown deadline.
“The Senate then needs to have a real bipartisan discussion about what additional reforms we need to put in place to prevent tragedies like Minneapolis from happening across the country,” Shaheen wrote in a social media post. “I will vote against DHS’s funding until additional reforms are in place.”
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