House approves final spending bills as Democrats denounce ICE funding

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House passed this year’s final batch of spending bills on Thursday as lawmakers, still smarting from last fall’s record 43-day shutdown, worked to avoid another funding lapse for a broad swath of the federal government.

The four bills total about $1.2 trillion in spending and now move to the Senate, with final passage needed next week before a Jan. 30 deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown.

Three of the bills had broad, bipartisan support. They funded Defense and various other departments, including Education, Transportation and Health and Human Services. A fourth bill funding the Department of Homeland Security was hotly disputed as Democrats voiced concerns that it failed to restrain President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts.

Republicans were able to overcome the Democratic objections and muscle the Homeland Security bill to passage in a 220-207 vote. The broader package, which funds a 3.8% pay raise for the military, passed in a 341-88 vote.

Before the votes, House Democratic leaders announced their opposition to the Homeland Security bill as the party’s rank-and-file demanded a more forceful stand in response to the Republican president’s immigration crackdown. Trump’s efforts have recently centered in the Minneapolis area, where more than 2,000 officers are stationed and where a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot Renee Good, a mother of three.

In a joint statement, the Democratic leaders said Trump promised the American people that his deportation policy would focus on violent felons in the country illegally, but instead, ICE has targeted American citizens and law-abiding immigrant families.

“Taxpayer dollars are being misused to brutalize U.S. citizens, including the tragic killing of Renee Nicole Good. This extremism must end,” said the statement from Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar.

Democrats had limited options

Democrats had few good options to express their opposition to Homeland Security funding.

Lawmakers, when confronting a funding impasse, generally turn to continuing resolutions to temporarily fund agencies at their current levels. But doing so in this case would simply cede more Homeland Security spending decisions to Trump, said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.

Also, there was concern that a failure to fund Homeland Security would hurt disaster assistance programs and agencies such as the Transportation Security Administration, while ICE and Customs and Border Protection would simply carry on. They could use funding from Trump’s big tax cut and immigration bill to continue their operations. ICE, which typically receives about $10 billion a year, was provided $30 billion for operations and $45 billion for detention facilities through Republicans’ “one big beautiful bill.”

This year’s Homeland Security bill holds the annual spending that Congress provides ICE roughly flat from the prior year. It also restricts the ability of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to unilaterally shift funding and allocate federal dollars as she sees fit. The bill also allocates $20 million for the purchase and operations of body cameras for ICE and CBP officers interacting with the public during immigration enforcement operations. And it will require Homeland Security to provide monthly updates on how it plans to spend money from Trump’s bill.

“It’s not everything we wanted. We wanted more oversight. But look, Democrats don’t control the House. We don’t control the Senate or the White House. But we were able to add some oversight over Homeland,” said Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, a member of the Appropriations panel.

Republicans countered that the Homeland Security bill helps lawmakers accomplish their most important duty — keeping the American people safe.

“This legislation delivers just that and upholds the America first agenda,” said Rep. Tom Cole, the Republican chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

Republicans also celebrated the avoidance of a massive, catchall funding bill known as an omnibus as part of this year’s appropriations process. Such bills, often taken up before the holiday season with lawmakers anxious to return home, have contributed to greater federal spending, they say. This year’s effort, while a few months behind schedule, manages to keep non-defense spending just below current levels, they emphasized.

“It sends a clear, powerful message back home — the House is back at work. We are back to governing,” said Rep. Mark Alford, R-Mo.

Anger on the House floor

One by one, Democratic lawmakers lined up to voice their opposition to the Homeland Security bill with a particular focus on ICE, which has been rapidly hiring thousands of new deportation officers to carry out the president’s mass deportation agenda.

Rep. Betty McCollum of Minnesota said residents of her state were being racially profiled on a mass scale and kidnapped from their communities.

“Masked federal agents are seizing parents, yes, in front of terrified children,” McCollum said. “And many of these people we’re finding had no record and were here legally.”

“I will not fund an agency that acts like an American gestapo,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.

“This is about the political retribution of a vengeful president,” said Clark of Massachusetts. “I will not rubberstamp the federal government’s use of political violence against its own people and I ask every member to join me in voting no.”

Cole decried some of the comments about ICE on the House floor.

“It’s reckless, encouraging people to believe that we have masses of bad actors in a particular agency,” Cole said.

In a last-minute add to the package, the House tacked on a provision that would repeal the ability of senators to sue the government over the collection of their cellphone data as part of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Senators had previously allowed suits claiming up to $500,000 in damages in an earlier funding bill, but the provision drew sharp criticism. The House unanimously agreed to block it.

Kevin Freking And Lisa Mascaro, The Associated Press