WASHINGTON — The threat of a partial government shutdown grew this week after Senate Democrats signaled opposition to fiscal policy. Man shot dead in Minneapolis According to federal officials, with just days left until the deadline for funding the government.

For weeks, members of both parties and both chambers of Congress Pass individual funding measures before government funding expires on Friday, January 30th.

Six of the 12 spending bills have already passed both chambers and been signed into law. And the Senate is scheduled to vote this week on the remaining six funding measures, which passed the House earlier this month and were packaged to ensure quick passage in the Senate.

The remaining six bills include funding for the Department of Defense. Labor, health, welfare, education. transportation, housing and urban development. States; Ministry of Finance and other relevant agencies. And importantly, funding for the Department of Homeland Security, including ICE and Border Patrol, is part of the six-bill package.

The grouping of these funding instruments is currently creating complications in the Senate. 37-year-old Alex Preti shot dead Border Patrol officials led a majority of Senate Democrats in opposing any funding package that included DHS. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced on Saturday Democrats will not provide the votes needed to push through a package to fund the remaining government agencies and programs if DHS money is included. With 53 Republicans, the measure would need to reach the 60-vote threshold for Democratic support to advance.

Even Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent who was one of three senators who crossed the aisle to negotiate a deal with Republicans during last year’s longest government shutdown in history, said he would not vote for a package that includes the DHS measure.

“I don’t want to close.” Dr. King said this on “Face the Nation.” Sunday. “But under these circumstances, we cannot vote for a bill that includes funding for ICE.”

Still, King, who caucuses with Democrats, argued there was “an easy way out” of the funding battle, with Senate Majority Leader John Thune saying the DHS bill should be separated from the other five funding measures.

“If these bills pass, it will be 96% federally funded,” King said. “Let’s take DHS on its own, have some honest negotiations, put some guardrails in place about what’s going on, some accountability, and we’ll solve this problem.”

Dr. King joined many Senate Democrats in supporting this approach. And late Sunday, Schumer suggested Democrats were prepared to move forward with five other funding bills more broadly.

“While we work to rewrite the DHS bill, Senate Republicans must work with Democrats to advance five other funding bills,” Schumer said in a statement, calling this the “best course of action.”

In a separate statement Monday, Schumer pressed Senate Republican leaders to move forward with the funding bill without DHS funding.

“The onus is on Leader Thune and Senate Republicans to prevent a partial government shutdown,” Schumer said. “If Leader Thune puts these five bills on the table this week, we can pass them quickly. If he doesn’t, Republicans will be responsible for another government shutdown.”

But it remains to be seen whether there is any will among Senate Republicans to remove the DHS funding bill from broader policies that would require unanimous consent. Heading into this week, Republican Senate leaders were expected to proceed as planned. Changes to the bill would require approval by the House of Representatives, which is in recess this week.

The DHS bill was considered separately from other funding bills in the House last week after many Democrats said they would not support it because it did not include major reforms to ICE in the wake of the first mass shooting by a federal officer in Minneapolis. The bill ultimately received support from seven House Democrats.

The House and Senate Appropriations committees released the text of the DHS funding measure and three other measures last week.

At the time, Democratic spending heads, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington and Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, characterized the DHS bill as a positive step, although they acknowledged it fell short of the reforms Democrats had sought. And they argued that neither a resolution to continue funding the government nor a government shutdown would rein in ICE, citing funds allocated in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, making alternative strategies in the funding fight futile.

Ultimately, Mr. DeLauro voted against the bill he had negotiated, but Mr. Murray pledged to oppose it as well.

“Federal agents can kill people in broad daylight with impunity,” Murray said. said In a post about X, he vowed to oppose the measure. “The DHS bill needs to be separated from the larger funding package coming to the Senate, and Republicans must work with us to do that.”

Some Senate Republicans spoke out in the wake of Saturday’s shooting, including Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. called He called for a joint federal and state investigation, calling the events in Minneapolis “incredibly alarming,” but calling for “the credibility of ICE and DHS to be at stake.” So does North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis. called Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski similarly called for a “thorough and impartial investigation.” said “A comprehensive, independent investigation of the shooting must be conducted to rebuild trust, and Congressional committees must hold hearings and conduct oversight efforts.”Senator Pete Ricketts Dave from Nebraska mccormick Pennsylvania and John’s Husted An Ohio woman later joined in calling for an investigation into the incident.

Whether more Republicans will follow suit or go further remains an open question.

Adding to the difficulties for the Senate this week is the winter storm in Washington. The Senate was scheduled to return for a vote on Monday, but weather conditions forced senators to return Tuesday afternoon, curtailing an already tight schedule to avoid a partial shutdown by the end of the week.

If senators fail to approve additional funding, government agencies and programs would begin shutting down after Jan. 30. But the shutdown will be different from the one that lasted from October to November, as some spending bills have already passed both chambers and been signed into law.

funding for military construction and the Department of Veterans Affairs; Department of Agriculture and FDA. And the legislative branch’s business was passed and signed into law in November as part of an agreement to reopen the government. Funding for the Departments of Commerce and Justice. The Department of the Interior and EPA, Energy and Water Development also passed both chambers and was signed last week. This means that the rest of the government will continue to operate as usual while the rest of the government is shut down.