Border Security Standoff Raises Chance of Government Shutdown

On Sunday, Congress and the White House were having difficulty agreeing on long-term spending legislation.

This disagreement over funding for border security threatens to shut down large portions of the federal government in less than a week.

If Congress doesn’t take action before Saturday midnight, the funding for around 70% of the federal government will expire.

These include the Departments of Defense, State and Homeland Security, the IRS, and the Transportation Security Administration.

A long-running shutdown might affect the government and economy in various ways. Congress has previously approved separate legislation for funding thirty percent of the government.

Discussions to finish a spending measure for all the rest of the agencies were coming together in Congress on Friday, with a vote planned for as early as Thursday.

However, several individuals who spoke on condition of anonymity and had knowledge of conversations stated that the talks were thwarted by disagreements over immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border.

House Speaker Mike Johnson‘s (R-La.) negotiators over the weekend pleaded to the White House, not congressional Democrats, to engage in spending negotiations amid growing tension.

A source familiar with the negotiations also stated that the two sides had anticipated releasing the bill text by Sunday afternoon. Still, given the continued widening differences, it became highly improbable.

According to various individuals, GOP negotiators were willing to provide the Department of Homeland Security roughly the same amount of funding for the remainder of the fiscal year 2024, which ends on September 30, as it received in fiscal 2023, with some additional money for immigration enforcement.

Yet, that would be a sizable funding reduction because of inflation. They added that the White House turned down the request, claiming that even that sum of money would leave the department at risk of financial collapse.

A senior GOP aide stated on Sunday, “Republicans have always said we will provide all the resources necessary for enforcement, but not a blank check to simply ‘manage’ people into the country and bail out sanctuary cities… House Republicans have repeatedly urged the White House for weeks to engage with congressional Democrats to help address the seriousness of the situation to little avail.”

According to three people with knowledge of the negotiations, the talks centred on where appropriators hoped to allocate funds for border security.

The White House wanted to keep funding for facilities that house unauthorized immigrants.

In contrast, congressional Republicans wanted to increase funding for Border Patrol agents to stop unauthorized immigrants from entering the U.S.

Even with its existing budget, the Department of Homeland Security is already experiencing financial difficulties.

With funds fast drying up, it drew up plans last month to release thousands of immigrants and reduce its detention capacity.

Continuous disagreements on border problems have also made other funding initiatives more difficult.

Negotiations about U.S. expenditures to support Ukraine have similarly failed to come to an agreement due to ongoing disputes over border security.