House approves spending bills despite many Democrats’ objections to ICE funds

The House passed the final slate of funding measures Thursday covering large swaths of the federal government, sending the package to the Senate ahead of a Jan. 30 deadline to avert a partial shutdown.

The House approved the funds with overwhelming bipartisan support – with one exception.

Just seven House Democrats voted for the bill funding the Department of Homeland Security through September, citing Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics in Minneapolis and elsewhere.

“ICE is totally out of control using taxpayer dollars to brutalize American citizens and law-abiding immigrant families,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Thursday.

Despite the paper-thin Republican majority in the House, the measure still passed 220-207. Democrats saw the vote as an opportunity to rebuke the Trump Administration’s immigration crackdown after an ICE officer shot and killed 37 year-old Renee Macklin Good in Minneapolis earlier this month.

The Senate is expected to vote next week on these remaining funding measures as a group, forcing Democrats to choose between approving or opposing the full slate of funding, which also include billions of dollars for defense, health, transportation and housing.

Democrats had attempted to insert more stringent measures to reign in ICE, such as prohibiting the agency from deporting or detaining American citizens, banning officers from deploying excessive force and explicitly preventing them from conducting raids at places of worship, hospitals and schools.

The Democrats who begrudgingly backed the final package said they won dedicated funds to provide body cameras for ICE officersfor the first time and allocated more money for oversight and de-escalation training. The final legislation also holds funding for ICE flat, while reducing the budget for enforcement and removal operations by $115 million and cutting detention bed capacity.

“This bill is not perfect,” said Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat whose district covers a long stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border. “However this bill is better than the alternatives of either funding the department under a continuing resolution or shutting down the government.”

Democratic leadership concluded that these concessions were not sufficient, though they did not stop members from voting in favor of the measure.

The top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), ultimately decided that grave concerns over ICE outweighed gains in the bill, like increases for funding to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Transportation Security Agency and pay raises for air traffic controllers and members of the Coast Guard.

“We have to deal with what’s happened in this country and we cannot turn a blind eye,” she said. “Make the decision based on where your heart is and what you believe in.”

Rep. Tom Cole, (R-Okla.), Appropriations Committee chair, said Democrats were ignoring most of the contents of the funding measure, which includes appropriations for a host of agencies Americans rely on.

“You’re voting against the people that will help you in a hurricane or a tornado or disaster of some sort,” Cole said. “Why in the world should they be penalized?”

House members are departing Washington ahead of a forecasted winter storm for a week-long recess, leaving the Senate to finish the appropriations process before the deadline at the end of next week.

Funding ran out for the federal government at the end of last September. The government remained shuttered for a record 43 days as Democrats fought to renew expiring health insurance subsidies. The shutdown ended with a deal to fund three of twelve appropriations packages through September 2026, but only provided a short-term extension through Jan. 30 for the remaining funding categories.

Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said she will be voting in favor of the remaining funding measures, which keep funding mostly flat and stave off the steep cuts the Trump Administration had called for.

“The suggestion that a shutdown in this moment might curb the lawlessness of this administration is not rooted in reality: under a CR and in a shutdown, this administration can do everything they are already doing – but without any of the critical guardrails and constraints imposed by a full-year funding bill,” Murray wrote in a statement. “The hard truth is that Democrats must win political power to enact the kind of accountability we need.”