House narrowly passes bill to end shutdown, but divisive DHS funding fight remains

Geoff Bennett:

Welcome to the "News Hour."

The four-day partial government shutdown is now over. Lawmakers passed a funding package today, which President Trump then signed, reopening the government.

Amna Nawaz:

But the policy fight behind this shutdown over Mr. Trump's immigration crackdown is far from over. And the government has given itself just a small window of borrowed time, as congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins has been following and is now here to explain.

Lisa, good to see you.

Lisa Desjardins:

Good to see you.

Amna Nawaz:

So just kick us off here. What happened today and what does it mean?

Lisa Desjardins:

This narrowly passed the House. It was close and there was a great deal of floor drama. And I'm going to talk a little bit about it because it is important for what lies ahead.

The House does have the narrowest majority, just a one-vote majority for Republicans, in history. And that was a factor today in an hour or so that this bill was actually failing on the House floor. Here's why. There were five Republicans who House Speaker Johnson needed to vote yes. They either weren't voting or were voting no.

Most of them were trying to use this as leverage to try and get a voter I.D. law passed. But one of them, John Rose of Tennessee, notably, the speaker said his problem was he's running for the governor of Tennessee and wants some more help from President Trump.

This is a major funding bill and yet it was held up for that. Now, this is important because, as you say, now we still have a period of time where DHS itself is not funded. This is just a short-term patch. So, again, what happened today was this law fully funds most agencies and government, except for the Department of Homeland Security, which has 10 days worth of funding.

During those 10 days, lawmakers are supposed to negotiate a deal on ICE and CBP. But those frustrated Republicans today, they're still frustrated. One of them continued to vote no, Thomas Massie of Kentucky.

Our producer Kyle Midura caught up with him and talked about his opposition.

Kyle Midura:

Is it worth holding out for it or you think that this is all just brought process?

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY):

We've got to hold out for something at some point, right? Nobody's holding out for anything here but me. And I held out for the Epstein files and got it done. They got to start holding out for something.

Lisa Desjardins:

You hear that? They got to start holding out for something. There's only 10 days left until the next funding wall hits.

This was difficult, but I also want to say they did manage to get funding passed, mostly in a bipartisan way. And, notably, the appropriations process was starting to work until it had this holdup.

Amna Nawaz:

I hear you saying 10 days. That is a very short window to reach some kind of deal when it comes to federal agents and ICE conduct. What do you know about those talks?

Lisa Desjardins:

Spent a lot of time working on this today. Let's look at the rough contours of where we are.

Democrats haven't presented one specific plan, but here's what some of the Democrats are demanding. They want body cameras. They want no more masks. They want ICE agents to provide their I.D.s. And some Democrats want to require judicial warrants for ICE.

But here's the problem, where it's getting complicated. Here's a look at where Republicans are in general. We know DHS has already said they will work to get body cameras on ICE agents, but, as for masks, I.D.s, unclear exactly where Republicans will come down on that.

And, Amna, Republicans, including the speaker, have said they are against the idea of using judicial warrants. Another question here is that Republicans, including the speaker, want that vote on a voter I.D. law, which is unassociated with this. They want to add it to it.

So here's what Speaker Johnson said earlier today on both fronts.

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA):

This is a big priority for not just House Republicans, but for the American people. And we will continue to attach this to legislation and send it over. And it will be part of the discussion over the next couple of weeks, and we will see how that shakes out.

But I suspect that some of the changes, the procedural modifications with ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, will be codified. I mean, they have said that they're willing to do some of this, and so we will see how it comes out.

Lisa Desjardins:

That was big news, willing to codify some of this, what Democrats want.

As for what they want exactly, Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader of the Senate, said today he's ready to make the next move.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY):

The House vote just passed, and we're going to present a serious proposal, detailed, along the outlines of what we have talked about to the Republicans, both in the Senate, the House and the White House, very shortly.

Lisa Desjardins:

We're also watching House Democrats. They don't necessarily agree with Senate Democrats.

Amna Nawaz:

You mentioned those judicial warrants. That seems like one of the most complicated pieces here. What do Democrats want there?

Lisa Desjardins:

I think we're going to be talking a lot more about this in coming days, but, quickly, the judicial warrants have a much higher standard. They have to go through a judge, through a court, and that's why Democrats want them. They want someone independent of ICE reviewing that warrant process.

However, Republicans say, no, that's too high of a standard in this situation. That's going to be a major point of debate.

Amna Nawaz:

So, bottom line for today, Lisa, when do we expect the full government to reopen?

Lisa Desjardins:

Imagine this. Right now, the government is reopening. As you said, President Trump signed the law. Those many workers who didn't show up today, who had a brief furlough, they will be back tomorrow.

But, again, stay tuned because the Department of Homeland Security, which is a very large agency, their fate still awaits another wall in just 10 days.

Amna Nawaz:

More talks ahead.

Lisa Desjardins covering it all, thank you.

Lisa Desjardins:

You're welcome.