Republicans and Democrats sparred Wednesday on the potential real-world harms of a partial shutdown for the Department of Homeland Security, as Congress marched toward a funding deadline for the agency amid a dispute over immigration enforcement policies.
The House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee held a hearing with officials from five national security and emergency management agencies to highlight what would happen if a continuing resolution expires Saturday without further action from Congress.
The subcommittee’s chairman, Mark Amodei, R-Nev., said that “a shutdown has gone from a distinct possibility to a probability” and noted that the missions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection “will largely not be affected by a shutdown” because it is funded by last year’s budget reconciliation law.
