SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
There's a federal government shutdown again today, but unlike the record-long shutdown last fall, this funding lapse does not affect the whole government and may last only a few days. This comes as Democrats press for additional guardrails to try to rein in federal immigration officers after the killings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. We're joined now by NPR congressional reporter Sam Gringlas. Sam, thanks for being with us.
SAM GRINGLAS, BYLINE: Hey, Scott. Good morning.
SIMON: Will most Americans even notice the shutdown?
GRINGLAS: Probably not. You know, the Senate voted last night to fund large parts of the federal government that ran out of money at midnight. But the House still needs to greenlight this final deal, and that will not happen until at least Monday. So if all goes smoothly, this could be really brief, you know, not enough time for most federal workers to miss paychecks, though some might be furloughed or have to work without pay, like TSA agents. And while some government services may be affected, other pinch points that we saw during the last shutdown, like food assistance, will not be impacted now because Congress managed to fund a few of these agencies through September since the last shutdown.
SIMON: And Congress just got through that funding standoff in November. How did they get to the same brink just a few months later?
GRINGLAS: Congress had been on track to avert a shutdown, but after that second deadly shooting in Minneapolis, Democrats pledged to oppose the Homeland Security funding bill, which includes funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But the money for the Department of Homeland Security was tied together with more than a trillion dollars for other departments, including defense, health and housing. Republicans agreed to Democrats' demands to isolate DHS funding from the rest and only extend it for two weeks, giving them time to negotiate policy changes to restrain the actions of federal immigration agents. But, Scott, it's not clear that lawmakers can come up with an agreement on that.
SIMON: What do Democrats want, and why have they been willing to risk another shutdown?
GRINGLAS: Yeah. Democrats are demanding a suite of changes, like requiring judicial warrants for immigration raids, ensuring impartial investigations and accountability after incidents and mandating immigration officers wear body cameras and remove their masks. Democrats like Chris Murphy of Connecticut feel emboldened because they think the public agrees with them.
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CHRIS MURPHY: I think people want us to fight. People want us to act in an urgent way. So I think if we're fighting for these reforms, we're exactly where the American people want us to be.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Have you spoken...
GRINGLAS: And even more than the last shutdown debate over those health subsidies last fall, what's unfolded in Minneapolis maybe speaks to something more fundamental about the country at this moment. Last fall, six Senate Democrats broke with their party to reopen the government, saying the consequences of the shutdown were just too much. This time, though, five of those six say that they were willing to risk another shutdown here.
SIMON: And, Sam, what have you noticed in the Republican response this week?
GRINGLAS: So we are in an era when congressional Republicans rarely criticize the Trump administration. But the images coming out of Minneapolis have made even many Republicans uneasy. Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina told reporters this week that immigration was an issue that helped Republicans win, and this was undercutting all of that.
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THOM TILLIS: It's making the president look bad on policies that he won on. He won on a strong message about immigration. And now nobody's talking about that. They're not talking about securing the border. They're talking about the incompetence of the leader of the Homeland Security. These people are amateurs.
GRINGLAS: We also heard some Republicans calling not just for an investigation or hearings, but also saying they're open to policy changes. Though, this is far from universal. Many Republicans like Senator Markwayne Mullin, Republican of Oklahoma, have praised the work of ICE and called the Minneapolis shootings an anomaly.
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MARKWAYNE MULLIN: We're not going to keep ICE from doing their job. The American people wanted the president to enforce law and order, and ICE is doing their job.
SIMON: And what happens if the two parties can't come to an agreement on ICE restrictions?
GRINGLAS: OK. So I mentioned the House on Monday has to give this final green light, and that is not a foregone conclusion. House Democrats are saying they're still weighing this deal, thinking maybe their party should hold up funding further to maximize their ability to extract policy changes. And then if this deal does pass funding for Homeland Security, it's just temporary. Congress will have less than two weeks to coalesce around policy changes, and that is a really tall order here, especially for this Congress, where bipartisan agreement has often proved so elusive.
SIMON: NPR congressional reporter Sam Gringlas. Thanks so much.
GRINGLAS: Thanks, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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