The Government Shutdown Fight Over Immigration

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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

Noah Chestnut 0:00
Hey, it's Noah Chestnut from The Athletic. If you're into games and sports, pay attention. I'm gonna give you four sports terms. You tell me the common thread. Ready? Game. Match. Point. Set. This one's kind of a gimme. The answer is how tennis is scored. Do you want more of a challenge? Check out Connections Sports Edition. It's a new daily game for sports fans. To play now, go to theathletic.com slash connections.
Michael Bavaro 0:34
From the New York Times, I'm Michael Bavaro. This is The Daily Net. Later tonight, the U.S. government will find itself in yet another shutdown, this time of only one agency, the Department of Homeland Security. Today, congressional reporter Michael Gold on why Democrats are once again picking a fight over funding with the president. It's Friday, February 13th. Michael, thank you for making time for us on a busy day where I know we just grabbed you inside the U.S. Capitol. Yeah, a lot happening here on the Hill today, I would say. Well, appreciate you making time for us. As of this moment, at around 3.45 p.m. on Thursday afternoon, it sure looks like we are headed for another government shutdown. But this one has a very unique twist to it.
Michael Gold 1:39
That's right, Michael. At this point, it looks like at 12.01 a.m. on Saturday morning, the Department of Homeland Security is going to shut down. And it's the only government department that we expect will shut down this time. A single agency shutdown. A one agency shutdown. And that department is about 4% of U.S. government spending. So if you think about the shutdown we had last year as a full government shutdown and the brief one we had earlier this month as a partial government shutdown, this is a very fractional government shutdown.
Michael Bavaro 2:08
A fractional government shutdown, right. And as you're hinting at, government shutdowns have become the norm. But even within that weird new norm, this one is quite unique. So tell us the story of how we get to a single agency fractional shutdown.
Michael Gold 2:26
So for the last few months, Congress has really been working hard to pass all of its funding bills. And this is something that Republicans, when they took control of both the House and Senate, set as a major priority. They wanted to pass funding bills.

What is the unique aspect of the upcoming government shutdown?

Michael Gold 2:39
They wanted to pass individual funding bills, not one big package, and really hash out policy details for every government department.
Michael Bavaro 2:46
Right, and the argument was that that creates more transparency if you have multiple bills funding the government versus one vast, impenetrable bill.
Michael Gold 2:54
That's right. And a lot of members of Congress had complained that they had constantly been stuck voting for these big packages, but they never really got to haggle on the specifics of what went into those bills. And so they've been working for months to find agreements, Republicans and Democrats, occasionally the White House, coming together to try to find a way that they could fund the government one department at a time. I mean, they were putting together bills that cleared the House and Senate. They were really working together to try to find compromises on things. And it seemed like everything was on track until last month when Rene Good was shot and killed by an immigration agent in Minneapolis.
Michael Gold 3:31
And that's when Democrats realized that they're on the verge of passing a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and the Border Patrol. And so Democrats start to talk about how they can get serious changes to that bill that would impose some restrictions on the federal immigration operations and the deportation crackdown. And they go back to the negotiating table. with the White House and with Republicans, and they come up with a kind of compromise bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security that includes things like $20 million for body cameras and requirements that officers get enhanced training about use of force and de-escalation techniques.
Michael Bavaro 4:05
Got it. So Democrats extract some changes to the way that immigration officials are going to be operating in places like Minneapolis. They seem modest, but they're there.

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