Senator warns Democrat shutdown could endanger Americans facing winter storm
An impending government shutdown would “stall funding” for the Federal Emergency Management Agency shortly after a “crippling” winter storm, Sen. Marsha Blackburn told The Daily Signal.
“Most of the Democrats do not want a shutdown,” Blackburn said. “I think also it’s important to realize we have had a massive storm. It has crippled much of our nation and FEMA funding, Coast Guard funding, comes out of the [Department of Homeland Security] budget, and I really don’t think they want to end up stalling funding for FEMA as we are dealing with such a tragic aftermath.”
Some Democrats are threatening to vote against an upcoming spending package if a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security is not given a separate vote. The House has sent the Senate a package of six appropriations bills, including one for DHS, that the president must sign into law in order to avert a partial government shutdown on Jan. 30.
Democrat threats to shut down the government by voting no on DHS funding come after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, 37, in Minneapolis by federal immigration enforcement officers. The agency oversees immigration enforcement.
However, the “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” signed into law in 2025, already funded Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. Thus, the agencies would still remain funded and fully operational regardless of the vote this week.
If the Senate removed DHS funding from the package, it would have to go back to the House for approval. The House is not in session this week, making it unlikely that the government would remain funded beyond the Jan. 30 deadline.
The government shutdown would follow a week of historic winter weather across the nation.
“Tennessee has been hit unbelievably hard with the ice storm,” Blackburn said. “This is going to take a while to clean up, and it’s inappropriate to not fund DHS in the middle of this.”
When asked if Congress needs to investigate the events surrounding Pretti’s death, Blackburn said, “There’s already two investigations going on: the FBI investigation and the professional responsibility investigation.”
“They should be completed soon, and we should know those results,” she said.
Alex Bruesewitz, a top adviser to President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign, said a Democrat shutdown over DHS funding is “terrible politics.”
“I think it’s absolutely terrible politics to vote against border security, to vote against ICE,” he said. “And if I was a Democrat consultant, I would be saying, ‘Don’t do that, don’t do that, don’t do that.’ But because I’m a Republican consultant, I’m gonna say, ‘Do it, do it, do it.’ Who cares? Because it’s terrible politics for them.”
Democrats are “always on the wrong side of the issues,” the Republican strategist said.
“Donald Trump has done such a great job of identifying issues that 80% of Americans support, and then getting the Democrats to take the 20% side, every time,” he said. “On the gender transition stuff, they take the 20%. Actually I think it’s like 1%, only 1% wanna see gender transition surgeries for children. But with the immigration, 80% of Americans, maybe more, they want strong borders. They want a strong country.”
“I don’t think picking a fight on border security is gonna be a good move for them,” Bruesewitz said of the Democrats.
[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]