We are now officially in another government shutdown. As was the case with the last shutdown, this one was triggered by Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer. Schumer’s logic for starting this latest shutdown is not only brainless, but also a financial and political gift to Republicans, should they choose to accept it. His stated reason is that he wants to strip out the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill and modify it because of what he believes are heavy-handed tactics used in Minnesota by officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
That DHS funding bill he wants to change is the result of months of bipartisan work to add more operational restrictions for both CBP and ICE as well as a baseline budget cut to CBP. Even though Schumer’s colleagues labored hard from a minority position to get these items into the bill, Schumer decided on his own it wasn’t restrictive enough.
Here’s the part that is brainless – Both CBP and ICE were given a mountain of extra funding (over $170B) this past July with the passage of the Big Beautiful Bill. That funding is far more than what both agencies would receive in either the 2025 or the proposed 2026 budget laws. It effectively keeps ICE and CBP operational through 2029, even during shutdowns. There isn’t anything Schumer can do about it.
Next, Schumer’s “deal” agreed to keep DHS running for two more weeks via a continuing resolution (CR). His reasoning here is that it would give the Senate time to create a new 2026 budget bill for DHS that is more restrictive for ICE and CBP but not penalize the other important departments in DHS (TSA, Coast Guard, and Air Traffic Controllers, etc.) during those negotiations.
However, a CR simply “continues” the previous year’s budget law. In the case of DHS, that means two more weeks of a higher baseline budget for CBP and none of the restrictions for ICE or CBP that were in the bipartisan DHS bill for 2026 that Schumer just scuttled.
Schumer has already demonstrated a reluctance to completely shut down DHS because of the other critical functions besides ICE and CBP. If two weeks from now, there isn’t progress on a more restrictive DHS bill to his liking, wouldn’t he just call for another CR for DHS for the very same reason he previously did? Of course he would.
We think the Republicans should jump at this opportunity. The first thing they need to do is vote for exactly what Schumer asked for – passage of all the other government funding bills except for DHS (Defense, State, Labor, HHS, Education, Transportation, HUD, Financial Services, General Government). Then they should just keep forcing Schumer to extend the DHS CR indefinitely. In that outcome, there would be no absurd restrictions on ICE or CBP, and the maximum amount of money possible would go to both departments on top of what they are already getting from the Big Beautiful Bill. Seems like a slam dunk.