House Speaker Mike Johnson is back in Washington this week with a tough ask for his fellow Republicans: accept a funding deal that Democrats pushed for or risk another painful, prolonged government shutdown.
Two days after a partial lapse in federal funding, the House returns Monday to prepare a vote that many GOP lawmakers are already dreading. Republicans are under pressure to give final approval to a deal between President Donald Trump and Senate Democrats that temporarily extends Department of Homeland Security funding for two weeks — alongside a broader, full-year spending deal — so the two parties can negotiate over Democrats’ demands to rein in Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics.
The final vote is expected as early as Tuesday, which would allow federal workers to avoid feeling any major effects of the shutdown.
But even with Trump endorsing the package, several GOP hardliners are revolting against the idea. One, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, has been adamant that she will not support any funding deal if it doesn’t include a strict voter ID law — something Senate Democrats would not support.
The push by Democrats to enact reforms to ICE practices comes after the recent killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. The fact that the White House was willing to cut the deal with Senate Democrats underscores the Trump administration’s desire to avoid another drawn-out federal funding fight. It also served as a tacit acknowledgement of the political risks of ignoring the public outcry in the wake of the killings.
As GOP senators left town Friday after passing the deal, many were confident their House counterparts would accept the bill, pointing to the White House’s own approval.
“The president saying, ‘This is the best that we can do’ and that it’s really important to get government going once again, I think that’s going to carry a lot of weight with our conservative friends in the House,” Sen. Mike Rounds said Friday. He stressed that Republicans would have their own DHS demands during negotiations, such as ending so-called sanctuary cities, where local officials do not enforce certain federal immigration laws.
“I just can’t imagine the folks in the House are going to say, ‘No we’re going to shut down government,’ just simply because we’re trying to find a path forward where we can actually address sanctuary cities as well,” the South Dakota Republican said.
Every vote matters in Johnson’s slim majority. The Louisiana Republican can afford to lose only two defections on a party-line vote. That margin will soon be even lower: House Democrats elected another member from Texas — Christian Menefee — in a special election over the weekend. Once Menefee is sworn in, Johnson can afford only a single defection.
Top House Democrats, for their part, have communicated to Johnson they are not inclined to help him advance the deal that Trump made with Senate Democrats.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told Johnson during a call Saturday that Democrats won’t help Republicans pass the bill if they attempted to fast-track the measure Monday, according to two sources familiar with the call. After that move, Republican leaders decided not to attempt that fast-tracked process and will instead proceed through regular order — which will require near-unanimity within the House GOP to advance the bill.
A key step in that process will take place Monday, when the House Rules Committee meets to tee up a critical procedural vote that allows Johnson to bring the package to the floor. That committee vote is not guaranteed to pass, as the panel includes hardline conservatives like Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and Ralph Norman of South Carolina. Neither member returned CNN’s requests for comment over the weekend.
Dozens of House Democrats have already declared they would oppose the deal, including Texas Rep. Greg Casar, who leads the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
“My Progressive Caucus colleagues and I have been clear: not another cent to ICE until we stop the chaos and the lawlessness. If this comes to the House, I’m voting no,” Casar wrote on X on Friday.
However, on a private caucus call Sunday evening, some Democrats voiced support for the government funding deal, according to three sources familiar with the call.
Reps. Steny Hoyer and Jim Clyburn, senior lawmakers who previously served in leadership, said on the call that they support the package, one of the sources told CNN.
Another source on the call said the caucus was not totally united on how to vote on the underlying bill. It’s not unusual, however, for some Democrats to vote against these funding bills while appropriators often back them. If the Republicans can overcome the rule hurdle, the source expected there would be enough Democratic votes to pass the spending bill.
Once Congress votes to reopen the government, lawmakers will confront a far more complex problem. Both parties must come to a deal on how to rein in federal immigration enforcement officers, or face the prospect of another DHS shutdown in February.
Already, a key sticking point in negotiations is emerging: the use of administrative versus judicial warrants.
An administrative warrant is issued by a government agency, in this case by DHS, and is common practice in immigration enforcement. A judicial warrant is a court order signed by a judge or magistrate and is typically used in criminal investigation for search, seizure and arrest.
Democrats are calling for the adoption of judicial warrants in immigration enforcement — a condition Republicans say is a nonstarter.
“Ain’t going to happen,” Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said Sunday on Fox News.
Jeffries, however, said judicial warrants were needed “absolutely as a condition of moving forward.”
“The administrative warrants, in our view, aren’t worth the paper they are written on,” Jeffries said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Johnson said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that judicial warrants would just add another level of “bureaucracy.”