White House not budging on Democrats’ demands as DHS funding mutiny threatens government shutdown

The White House appears to be rejecting Democrats’ demands in the burgeoning government funding fight, as the chances of a partial shutdown grow larger by the day.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is threatening that Democrats will vote against the massive federal spending bill set to get a vote this week unless funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is stripped out and renegotiated.

Republicans have already signaled they’re not inclined to do so, which White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reaffirmed during her Monday afternoon press conference.

Leavitt also pointed out that all the bills wrapped into the massive spending package are the product of bipartisan negotiations between the House and Senate — meaning Democrats already had a say in the legislation they are now rejecting.

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“At this point, the White House supports the bipartisan work that was done to advance the bipartisan appropriations package, and we want to see that passed,” President Donald Trump’s spokeswoman said. 

“Policy discussions on immigration in Minnesota are happening. Look, the president is leading those discussions, as evidenced by his correspondence with Governor Walz this morning. But that should not be at the expense of government funding for the American people.”

Democrats are coming out against the DHS funding bill en masse in the wake of another deadly federal law enforcement-involved shooting in Minneapolis. A Border Patrol agent shot Alex Pretti, a nurse who worked with veterans at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center, during a wider protest against Trump’s immigration crackdown in the city.

Both Republicans and Democrats have called for investigations into the fatal encounter, but only Democrats are threatening to put federal funding at risk.

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Leavitt pointed out that the DHS funding portion would also allocate dollars to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), not just the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spending that Democrats object to.

“We are in the midst of the storm that took place over the weekend, and many Americans are still being impacted by that. So we absolutely do not want to see that funding lapse,” she said. “We want the Senate to move forward with passing the bipartisan appropriations package that was negotiated on a bipartisan basis.”

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The legislation negotiated between Republicans and Democrats already includes guardrails for ICE, including mandating body-worn cameras and more training on public engagement and de-escalation.

But Pretti’s killing and DHS’s handling of it infuriated Democrats — at least several of whom will be needed to meet the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to advance the legislation.

Senate Republicans had wanted to pass the package as early as Thursday and send it to Trump’s desk just before the Jan. 30 shutdown deadline.

Senate Democrats held a private, caucus-wide call on the matter on Sunday, after which a source familiar told Fox News Digital that Schumer’s plan was to reject any DHS bill without several reforms, but that the broader, five-bill funding package could move ahead. 

“Basically, DHS is the problem and should be split from the package,” they said.

But with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., taking the first procedural step to set up this week’s vote on the larger package on Monday, Democrats’ prospects of strong-arming the GOP are thin.

Even if Senate Democrats did prevail, it’s virtually guaranteed that Congress would miss the Friday shutdown deadline at this point.

Any changes to the spending package would require it to return to the House to be considered again, despite it passing the lower chamber last week.

But a House GOP leadership source told Fox News Digital of that prospect on Saturday, “We passed all 12 bills over to the Senate, and they still have six in their possession that they need to pass to the president. We have no plan to come back next week.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Schumer’s office for a response.