The Senate is taking a big step toward defunding the government as some Democrats call for ICE restrictions

The Senate on Thursday passed three appropriations bills in a largely bipartisan vote 82-15 vote. The three bills, bundled into a minivan, would fund the Departments of Energy, Commerce, Interior, Justice, EPA, water programs and federal science initiatives through the end of the current fiscal year.

Senate passage comes less than a week after the House passed the minibus in a similar bipartisan vote of 397-28.

After the longest government shutdown in U.S. history last fall — a battle that dragged on as Republicans blocked Democrats’ request to extend then-expiring Obamacare subsidies in exchange for their votes to fund the government — bipartisan passage of the three-bill appropriations package suggests that government funding is at least somewhat on track ahead of the upcoming deadline.

It’s still unclear how exactly Congress will handle the coming health care cost crisis — insurance premiums are expected to rise for millions of Americans in the coming months. The House has passed a measure that would revive Obamacare’s tax credits for three years, but the Senate is unlikely to take up the measure with a bipartisan group trying to negotiate a separate solution (plus, Trump has said he “might” veto the House bill if it passes the Senate and is sent to his desk).

Some Democrats are also considering whether to use the upcoming Jan. 30 government funding deadline to ask Congress to put some sort of scrutiny on President Trump’s nationwide mass deportation agenda after an ICE agent killed a woman in Minnesota earlier this month. This thinking is similar to their efforts in the fall: Government funding is the greatest pressure point for Democrats, and they could stand united in their opposition to any upcoming bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security unless it is accompanied by some restrictions on ICE agents. Some ideas being discussed among progressives in the House and Senate include requiring agents to wear identification, authorizing bench warrants for immigration-related arrests, and allowing only Customs and Border Protection agents to work at the border.

“Democrats cannot vote for a DHS budget that doesn’t curb the growing chaos at this agency,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said on Channel X in the wake of the Minneapolis shootings.

Congress must still pass the six remaining appropriations bills, including funding for DHS, or another continuing resolution (CR) before the January 30 deadline — the date the current short-term appropriations budget is set to expire — to avoid a partial government shutdown.

Three other bills to fund the Department of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs and Legislative Branch operations, also packaged in a minibus, were passed in November along with the current CR that reopened the government after the historic government shutdown, which brought the federal government to a standstill for more than 40 days.

“These bills reaffirm Congress’ authority over major spending decisions, and that couldn’t be more important,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) said earlier this week as the Senate took charge of the minibus. “These bills would put an end to some of the truly unacceptable and partisan retaliation we have seen from the Office of Management and Budget by telling this administration exactly how Congress decided funding should be spent.”

The appropriations bills approved Thursday create new funding levels for the current fiscal year, but they come with no guarantees that the Trump administration will actually stop illegally withholding or withholding funds approved by Congress as it has done since Trump took office last year.

—Nicole Lafond and Emin Yucel

“The end of his presidency.”

He talks to his local state newspaper This week’s Omaha World-HeraldRep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who has been vocal in his opposition to Trump’s threats over Greenland, predicted it would be “the end of his presidency” if Trump follows through on his threats to invade the country, an approach Bacon called “absolute clownishness.”

“There are a lot of Republicans who are angry about this,” Bacon said. “If he carries out the threats, I think it will be the end of his presidency.”

“I would lean that way,” he responded when asked how he would vote on a hypothetical impeachment over Trump’s actions on the Arctic island.

-Nicole Lafond

The stars and stripes are awake now too

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced Thursday

statement:
The War Department is returning the Stars & Stripes program to its original mission: reporting to our warfighters.
We’re bringing Stars & Stripes into the 21st century. We will modernize its operations, refocus its content away from morale-sapping distractions,…
– Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellASW) January 15, 2026