Beau of The Fifth Column

What's happening in Minnesota is appalling and unacceptable in any American city.

Democrats sought common sense reforms in the Department of Homeland Security spending bill.

But because of Republicans' refusal to stand up to President Trump, the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses of ICE.

I will vote no.

Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the DHS funding bill is included.

Senator Patty Murray of Washington, who is the ranking member on the Appropriations Committee, which means she's the person who actually negotiated the funding package, has decided that she won't be supporting the package.

She posted publicly, quote,

Federal agents cannot murder people in broad daylight and face zero consequences.

I will not support the DHS bill as it stands.

The DHS bill needs to be split off from the larger funding package before the Senate.

Republicans must work with us to do that.

I will continue fighting to rein in DHS and ICE.

Okay, so what does this mean?

The move by Democrats seems to be to try to split the DHS spending package off from the larger package, which includes everything from education to defense.

Republicans need at least some Democratic votes to move the package and keep the government open.

But the current feeling is that Republicans are probably going to bank on Democrats caving before there's another government shutdown.

Because despite the talk from the Democratic Party, Republicans are under pressure from Trump, who won't want to be perceived as failing in yet another way.

He's underwater on the economy.

His trade wars have failed.

His foreign policy is in shambles.