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Today’s edition is about (sigh) the next government funding fight, which is set to consume the Capitol at the end of this month. While many Democrats would be happy to see ICE and the rest of the Department of Homeland Security receive significant cuts to their funding, the party doesn’t appear to be demanding that, let alone prioritizing it, as they prepare to negotiate to keep the government open. I spoke with key Senate Democrats to see if they’re willing to put up a fight on funding ICE.
In addition, Bill and Hillary Clinton avoided privately testifying in the Oversight Committee’s ongoing Jeffrey Epstein probe. It sets up a major legal fight in the coming months. Lastly, do you want to see a certain blue state governor jump from a truck onto a cheap folding table while football fans drunkenly cheer her on? Well, I have just the challenge for you. Read on for that and much more, below.
Democrats Appear Ready to Duck a Key Fight on ICE
Top Senate Democrats are focused on other priorities in the government funding fight.
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Thin blue line
During the last battle over government funding, which resulted in a record 43-day shutdown, Democrats showed that they had it in them to hold firm—at least for a long while—in an effort to push their policy priorities to the forefront of political debate. Enough of them ultimately voted to open the government. But as a whole, they succeeded in creating a political headache over health care that Republicans might not be able to shake for years. The deal they cut only funded the government through the end of January. But now, with funding for parts of the government set to expire once again, Democrats appear suddenly reluctant to use their leverage to address another issue that is important to their base (and, frankly, a lot of voters outside of it): the money pouring into ICE.
Republicans signaled they might be anticipating a battle over the Department of Homeland Security’s funding (from which ICE’s budget is drawn) when they released a minibus¹ Sunday night that unexpectedly excluded DHS. The decision to put off specifying how much money they are seeking for the department followed the shocking shooting of Minneapolis resident Renee Good by an ICE agent as she drove away from a protest in her car. It was a tragic example of the agency’s abuse and incompetence, and unfortunately, it is far from the only one.
Despite the fast-spreading outrage over the actions of DHS, many Senate Democrats aren’t eager to wage a fight over the department’s budget as part of this month’s funding fight.
I asked a number of Senate Democrats if increasing ICE funding is a red line for them in the upcoming budget negotiations. Most of the lawmakers I spoke with refrained from describing it in that way, opting instead to strongly criticize the agency without specifying what legislative action they might be willing to take to address the problems.
“I just think there are ways we can call out this behavior and the kind of level of disruption that’s taking place in city after city,” said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.). He mentioned reduced training requirements for ICE officers being a serious concern.
“Well I certainly don’t wanna see funding increases,” Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) told me.
“We’re going through these negotiations right now. I don’t wanna see that funding [for ICE],” Kim added. “I don’t ever make predictions about where my vote’s coming down on, but what I will say is that I’m certainly gonna fight to stop it.”
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) said she does not support increases to ICE’s budget, but offloaded much of the responsibility for whether that happens onto her GOP colleagues.
“Yeah, I would ask my Republican colleagues who are obviously taking the lead on these [appropriation bills],” she said. “Is this what they want to rubber stamp for residential neighborhoods across this country? Thousands of masked, armed agents coming into their communities?”
When asked by another reporter if she wants policy changes for DHS separate from strictly by-the-numbers funding, Baldwin, a member of the Appropriations Committee, suggested that programmatic reforms to an agency would be a separate matter from a debate over how much money to give said agency.
“That’s obviously—I don’t wanna get in the weeds—that&