Border deadlock raises risk of shutdown
A dispute over border security funding threatens to force a shutdown of vast swaths of the US federal government in less than a week, as Congress and the White House struggle to reach a deal on long-term spending legislation.
Funding for roughly 70% of the federal government – including the departments of Defence, State and Homeland Security, as well as the IRS and Transportation Security Administration – will expire on Saturday unless Congress acts before then.
A prolonged shutdown could have cascading effects on the US government and economy.
Two-thirds of IRS employees would face furloughs at the height of tax filing season. The roughly 1.3 million active-duty US military service members would remain on the job without pay. So would airport security officers, many of whom called in sick in protest during a previous shutdown, sparking nationwide travel delays.
As recently as Saturday, congressional negotiators were nearing an agreement to complete a spending bill for all those agencies, with the goal of voting on it as soon as Thursday. Congress has already passed separate legislation funding the other 30% of the government.
But disagreements over immigration at the US-Mexico border – an issue that has derailed legislation throughout this Congress, and has emerged as a key fault line between the parties in the November elections – stymied the talks, according to multiple people involved in the conversations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
GOP negotiators were prepared to offer the Department of Homeland Security roughly the same level of funding for the rest of the 2024 fiscal year as the department received in fiscal 2023, plus some extra money for immigration enforcement, multiple people said. But due to inflation, that would represent a significant funding cut in real terms. The White House rejected that proposal, the sources said, saying even that amount of money would put the department at a dangerous shortfall.
One administration official characterised the negotiations as an effort to prevent “chaos” at the border.
White House representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Border issues have complicated other funding measures. US President Joe Biden, Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer remain at an impasse in conversations about US spending to support Ukraine, talks that have gone awry over attempts to link the money to border security.