House Takes Major Step Toward Ending Government Shutdown

The House of Representatives is currently debating the government spending package that could end the partial government shutdown if approved.

President Donald Trump is expected to sign five appropriations bills along with a continuing resolution to fund the Department of Homeland Security for the next 10 days, as lawmakers negotiate potential restrictions on federal immigration enforcement.

Before the House Rules Committee meeting on Monday to advance the package in the chamber, Trump said on X that he did not want any changes to the Senate package. That package was approved on Friday as part of a deal between the White House and Senate Democrats.

The fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis escalated tensions surrounding immigration operations by the Trump administration. Democrats threatened a shutdown if DHS funding was not split from the rest of the spending package in the Senate, even though the House had already approved it before the shooting death on a bipartisan basis.

However, because the House was out of session, most government operations closed starting on Saturday. A handful of Republicans wanted the SAVE Act, a House-approved bill requiring documentary proof of citizenship to vote, tacked onto the package to force a Senate vote.

Claims circulated that Senate leaders had agreed to bring the SAVE Act to a floor vote by scrapping the filibuster in order to win over House GOP holdouts and end the shutdown. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) quickly poured cold water on those reports.

“We’ve got some members, as you know, who expressed an interest in that, so we’re going to have a conversation about it, but there weren’t any commitments made,” Thune said Tuesday, according to Fox News.

The dispute ruffled feathers during a procedural vote, including from Rep. John Rose (R-TN), who accused the Senate leader of “already backtracking on what he reportedly told some House Republicans: that if we reopened the government, he’d keep his word and bring the SAVE Act to the floor.”

“House Republicans MUST hold the line and refuse to fold on something as fundamental as election integrity. The SAVE Act belongs on must-pass legislation,” Rose, who’s running for governor of Tennessee, continued.

The procedural vote narrowly passed 217-215 along party lines, with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) voting against the legislation and Rose eventually changing his “no” vote to “yes.”

Funding DHS through September is shaping up to be a bruising fight, as Republicans demand tougher action against sanctuary cities while Democrats seek serious restrictions on ICE and CBP.

“Next week and the week after will be intense. The two sides are pretty far apart,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told Punchbowl News on Tuesday.

“If we’re going to be discussing all this and ICE operations, and part of that equation is how sanctuary cities have not been participating. In fact, they’ve been thwarting the efforts of ICE, and I think that has to be part of the discussion,” he further told the outlet.