Will the Minneapolis shooting tip the balance and shut down the US government?

Washington is facing heightened uncertainty over federal funding after the fatal shooting of a second American citizen named Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis led to multiple US senators to withdraw support for upcoming spending bills. The move increases the chances of a government shutdown next week.

Funding for major portions of the federal government, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Pentagon, is set to expire on January 31. While the Republican-led House of Representatives has already approved funding through September, the Senate still must approve the bills for them to take effect.

Slim GOP majority meets stubborn Democratic opposition

Although President Donald Trump’s Republican Party maintains a slim majority in the 100-member Senate, it does not hold enough votes to pass the spending package without Democratic backing. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer stated on Saturday: “Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the DHS funding bill is included.”

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Republicans had hoped to secure support from a few Democrats, despite the bill including full funding for DHS, the agency responsible for Trump’s controversial immigration enforcement actions.

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Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, considered a potential swing voter, announced Saturday that she would oppose the DHS funding bill following the Minneapolis shooting. “I will not support the current Homeland Security funding bill,” she said, accusing the administration and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem of “putting undertrained, combative federal agents on the streets with no accountability.”

Minneapolis shootings fuel opposition

The killing of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old Minneapolis ICU nurse, comes just three weeks after another resident, Renee Good, was also shot by a federal agent. The incidents have intensified scrutiny of DHS operations in urban areas.

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Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginia expressed outrage in a social media post, saying: “This brutal crackdown has to end. I cannot and will not vote to fund DHS while this administration continues these violent federal takeovers of our cities.”

Shutdown looms

The US recently endured its longest government shutdown, lasting 43 days, which furloughed hundreds of thousands of federal employees, leaving many essential workers unpaid. Senate rules require 60 votes to pass spending bills, and with growing Democratic resistance, the possibility of another shutdown just two months after the previous one is increasingly real.