A federal budget bill allocating billions of dollars to Immigration and Customs Enforcement remains deadlocked as another shutdown of the federal government looms.
Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly voted to pass a bill providing funding for various federal agencies through the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends in September.
While the budget bill includes funds for departments such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency — which would receive more than $5 billion under the bill — it also includes funding for the Department of Homeland Security and ICE, which many Democrats have opposed.
In particular, the bill would allocate a little over $10 billion to ICE, including $11 million for “costs associated with the care, maintenance and repatriation of smuggled aliens unlawfully present in the United States.”
Should Congress not pass the bill by Friday, the federal government will once again shut down. On Wednesday, senators laid out their positions on the bill, but no vote on the measure took place.
Hawai‘i Sen. Brian Schatz spoke on the measure Wednesday and condemned the actions of immigration officers in Minneapolis. Schatz had previously said on Saturday that he will vote against any DHS funding unless “more controls are put in place to hold ICE accountable.”
When the House voted 220-207 to pass the measure last week, Hawai‘i Reps. Ed Case and Jill Tokuda also voted against the bill.
Meanwhile, another, far longer budget bill has also been held up in Congress despite being much less divisive in the House — the bill passed the House last week 341-88, with Case and Tokuda in support.
This second unnamed measure includes $22.3 million for continued funding to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Native Hawaiian Housing Block Grant Program, another $27 million for a Native Hawaiian housing loan program, $22 million for the East-West Center, and more.
While the Senate moved to end discussion of the bill on Tuesday and push it to a vote, discussion of the ICE budget bill prevented any vote from taking place.
Nor has the Senate voted on the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act, a bill that would require universities enrolled in federal student aid programs to inform students of available resources in case of pregnancy.
In particular, the university would need to inform students of available accommodations and other services to help carry a pregnancy to term and provide post-birth care. Students would also be provided with a procedure for filing a complaint if they feel they’ve been discriminated against for choosing to carry a pregnancy to term.
The House voted 217-211 to pass the bill last week, with Case and Tokuda voting against it. On Tuesday, Hawai‘i Sen. Mazie Hirono spoke against the bill, calling it “yet another step in a broader war on reproductive rights and reproductive freedoms.”
Hirono told the Senate the measure does little to actually help pregnant students while notably not including any information about abortion or contraception — which she called “government-mandated bias” — while threatening to further cut funds to universities.
Like the other two bills, the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act remains on the Senate floor with no vote scheduled.
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