A partial government shutdown looms
The Excerpt
USA TODAY
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🗓️ 30 January 2026
⏱️ 15 minutes
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Summary
Following the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis last Saturday, Democrats have taken a stand against the Trump administration’s immigration policy. While the Senate did reach a short-term deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security, because the House is out of session, a partial government shutdown could still begin on Saturday. USA TODAY Congressional Reporter Zach Schermele joins The Excerpt from the Capitol with the latest.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Following the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Predey by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis last Saturday, Democrats have taken a stand against the Trump administration's immigration policy. |
| 0:16.3 | Senate Democrats are refusing to advance a must-pass appropriations package if it includes funding for the Department of Homeland Security. |
| 0:26.1 | Hello and welcome to USA Today is The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Friday, January 30th, 2026. |
| 0:33.0 | Joining me now to discuss the possibility of another partial government shutdown is USA Today congressional |
| 0:39.5 | reporter, Zach Shermaley. It's good to speak to you, Zach. |
| 0:42.8 | You too, Dana. |
| 0:44.0 | Zach, Thursday afternoon saw a failed Senate vote on passing a previously agreed upon funding |
| 0:50.1 | deal. What happened there? |
| 0:52.6 | So all Democrats and seven Republicans in the Senate failed to advance a, |
| 1:00.7 | what was originally bipartisan funding package that included six of the federal government's 12 annual appropriations bills. So essentially, as you noted, |
| 1:15.5 | ever since the killing over the weekend of Alex Pretti, 37-year-old ICU nurse in Minneapolis, |
| 1:24.3 | Senate Democrats have been extremely united over their concerns regarding the Trump administration's immigration enforcement surge in Minneapolis and, you know, just point blank, said to Senate Republicans and to the White House, we are not going to advance this funding package despite having negotiated over it for months. |
| 1:48.0 | If there is not an agreement to strip out a bill that would fund the Department of Homeland Security, |
| 1:55.0 | which includes immigration and customs enforcement or ICE and border patrol. We need that to be stripped out of |
| 2:03.9 | the broader funding package and we'll fund the rest of the government, but we want to buy some |
| 2:08.1 | time to negotiate over our concerns related to immigration. After the vote, the White House and |
| 2:15.9 | Senate Democrats did come to a deal. |
| 2:18.8 | They said that they are going to move forward with taking out the Department of Homeland Security |
| 2:26.4 | funding bill. |
| 2:28.0 | They're going to pass instead a short-term measure for that agency to buy them some time |
| 2:33.0 | to continue on with negotiations about reform |
| 2:36.7 | there while moving forward with the rest of their appropriations bills. This doesn't, though, |
... |
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