The government will partially shut down again beginning Saturday after the Senate passed a disputed budget bill on Friday.
The U.S. Senate has been deadlocked over an appropriations measure for the better part of a week. The version of the bill that the House had narrowly passed last week included funding for several federal agencies, but also more than $10 billion for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, which several Democrats said they would refuse to approve.
It worked: the Senate voted Friday to pass a version of the bill with the ICE funding stripped out. The new version of the measure provides short-term funds for the Department of Homeland Security for the next two weeks.
Both Hawai‘i's senators, Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono voted for the bill, with the final tally showing 71 votes in favor and 29 opposed. Most of the votes in opposition were from Democrats.
Hirono said after the vote that Congress now has "two weeks to negotiate immediate, common-sense guardrails to rein in the lawlessness of ICE."
"Over the next two weeks, the onus will be on the Republicans to agree to the serious reforms Democrats are demanding," Hirono said. "I will continue my work fighting for other reforms, including giving people the ability to hold lawless government agents accountable."
Meanwhile, Schatz touted several appropriations earmarked for Hawai‘i within the bill, including $1.9 million for Maui nursing home improvements, $1.6 million to support digitization projects at Bishop Museum, $7.3 million to Hawai‘i County to develop a highway in West Hawai‘i, $7 million to the City and County of Honolulu to extend the Mālaekahana bike path and more.
However, the Friday vote was not enough to wholly avoid a government shutdown. The House must once again vote on the bill before it goes to President Donald Trump’s desk, and because the House will not vote before Monday, funding has lapsed for several government agencies, including the departments of Defense, State, Human Services and more.
For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up here for our free Daily Edition newsletter.
