Votes in the House on Tuesday to end a partial government shutdown present complex political calculations for both Republicans and Democrats. Lawmakers must navigate internal party divisions while addressing a shutdown that began Saturday due to delays in approving funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
On the Republican side, a procedural vote to advance the latest funding package will test President Trump’s ability to unify the party’s slim House majority. Several conservatives have expressed dissatisfaction with the Senate’s changes to the funding bill. House Republicans including Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) and Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) said Monday they had not yet decided whether to vote for the procedural rule that would move the package forward. Some members had previously demanded the addition of GOP voting legislation, which would have sent the package back to the Senate and delayed reopening the government.
Trump urged members to drop such demands and support the bill. In a Truth Social post Monday, he wrote:
“We need to get the Government open, and I hope all Republicans and Democrats will join me in supporting this Bill, and send it to my desk WITHOUT DELAY. There can be NO CHANGES at this time. We will work together in good faith to address the issues that have been raised.”
Two GOP members pushing for voter ID and proof-of-citizenship legislation, Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), met with Trump at the White House Monday evening and said the meeting convinced them to support advancing the funding package on a procedural vote. Luna had previously argued that passing the spending bills was the only opportunity for the SAVE America Act, which requires proof of citizenship to register to vote and voter ID to cast a ballot.
For Democrats, the decision is complicated by the national uproar over recent federal immigration enforcement actions, including the killing of Minneapolis ICU nurse Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents. House Democrats must weigh whether to support temporary DHS funding while pressing for reforms to agency operations.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Monday that Democrats would not help Republicans pass a procedural rule along party lines:
“Republicans have a responsibility to move the rule. It’s hard to imagine a scenario where Democrats are going to provide Republicans — who spent all last year lecturing us about the fact they had some big, massive mandate, really?”
The political challenges follow a deal brokered by the White House with Senate Democrats last week. The Senate approved a package of five full-year appropriations bills but separated out DHS funding, extending it for only two weeks to allow negotiations over immigration enforcement reforms. Because the House must approve the Senate changes, the partial shutdown began.
House GOP leadership has faced persistent difficulty in rallying votes for DHS funding. Hardliners have opposed changes sought by Democrats, including the addition of body cameras for federal agents, restrictions on roving patrols, prohibitions on agents wearing masks, and stricter warrant requirements. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) emphasized the urgency of passing the funding package, noting its national security and emergency implications:
“This is a funding package right now, and I don’t think we need to be playing games with government funding. We still have winter storms, we got FEMA and TSA and troop pay and everything else wrapped into this, so we’ve got to get the job done.”
While some Democrats, like Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), indicated support for the funding package despite concerns about DHS, others, including Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), strongly opposed continuing DHS funding in the wake of the Pretti killing:
“I just don’t see how in good conscience Democrats can vote for continuing ICE funding when they’re killing American citizens, when there’s no provision to repeal the tripling of the budget.”
The procedural vote in the House on Tuesday is expected to be a key test of whether the GOP can advance the package without significant Democratic support. Success would move the funding bills closer to President Trump’s desk, ending the partial shutdown, while failure could prolong government closures and intensify political tensions on both sides of the aisle.
