DHS remains shuttered after third failed vote to reopen it

By Thérèse Boudreaux
The Center Square

Senate Democrats tanked the Department of Homeland Security funding bill for the third time Thursday, ensuring the department’s funding lapse will continue for at least 21 days.

“[T]hanks to Democrats’ shutdown, a lot of DHS employees are only receiving a partial paycheck today,” a frustrated Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said on the floor. “If Democrats were really interested in putting reforms in place, they’d be doing everything they can to get a bill. But they’re not. They’re interested in politics, not policy.”

With three American citizens having been killed during protests against immigration enforcement agents, Democrats are voting against the last remaining 2026 appropriations bill until it includes new restrictions on federal operations.

Democrats’ policy demands include prohibiting DHS agents from wearing masks, racially profiling, indiscriminately arresting people, tracking protestors, or entering private property without a judicial warrant in addition to an immigration court warrant, among other things.

“We are talking about standards local police already follow across the country,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told lawmakers before the vote. “And Republicans so far have continued to refuse to join us to pass any common-sense reforms.”

The Trump administration has already agreed to some of the demands, such as requiring body-worn cameras for DHS agents and ending roving patrols.

But it has thrown cold water on most of the other measures, arguing that personal ID requirements would endanger agents and that requiring judicial warrants or making “sensitive” locations off-limits would handicap the agency’s ability to do its job.

The failed vote comes as America escalates its military operations in Iran, increasing the pressure on Congress to reopen DHS.