The Senate returns to work today, while the House will hold a brief procedural session before getting back to regular business on Tuesday.
Lawmakers have still not passed a funding bill to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) subagencies affected by the record-breaking partial government shutdown, now in its ninth week.
During the two-week recess, House Republican speaker Mike Johnson took no action to advance a Senate-passed measure that would reopen agencies like the Transport Security Administration (TSA) and Coast Guard, but withhold funds for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and border patrol. Democrats have demanded stronger guardrails on federal immigration enforcement after the killing of two US citizens by officers in Minneapolis earlier this year.
Johnson is also facing pressure from hardline House Republicans members who argue that the Senate bill hands Democrats a win. Now, John Thune, the Senate majority leader, and Johnson are expected to try to move a new tax package that includes immigration enforcement funding for at least three years, aiming to avoid another standoff on Capitol Hill. They hope to pass it through a process known as reconciliation, which only requires a simple majority to advance.
Let me put this into my trusty Hyper-Normalization translator:
Wrrr…bizzt…click…click…blu-blu…ding!
“The circus is refining their act to adjust to an audience who is bored of business as usual. The clowns are being replaced with a freak show comprised of shit-eaters, geeks who bite the heads of chickens and a bearded lady whose beard is ZZ Top grade but the beard in on their ballsack. The lion show have reversed the roles and now one lion tames a group of ravenous trainers and makes them do tricks. The mime has been supplemented with pickpockets in the audience.”