Sawt Falasteen - US Senate rejects vote to avert government shutdown

The failure to approve a six-bill spending package intended to fund more than three-quarters of the federal government makes a partial shutdown starting Saturday almost impossible to avoid, although Democrats and the White House were still frantically seeking a last-minute deal.

It would be the second shutdown -- when funding for swaths of the US government are temporarily frozen -- since Trump took office a year ago.

Democrats had vowed to block the measure unless funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is peeled away and renegotiated to include guardrails on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the most generously funded US law-enforcement agency.

That left the chamber's 53 Republicans short of the 60 votes needed to advance the legislation towards final passage, leaving Washington bracing for another disruptive shutdown as negotiations slide toward Friday night's midnight deadline.

"What ICE is doing... it is state-sanctioned thuggery and it must stop. And Congress has the authority -- and the moral obligation -- to act," said Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ahead of the vote.

The test vote wasn't even close in the end, as a modest Republican revolt -- driven by a grab bag of grievances -- joined Democrats in delivering a decisive 55-45 rejection of the package.

If funding lapses, hundreds of thousands of public employees could be placed on leave or forced to work without pay, with economic disruption rippling outward.

The standoff -- which comes with particularly high stakes in a year in which the entire House and around a third of the Senate are up for reelection in the midterms -- has been triggered by an incendiary row over immigration enforcement.

Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse protesting Trump's deportation efforts in the northern city of Minneapolis, was shot dead Saturday by border patrol agents -- just weeks after immigration officers killed another activist, Renee Good, blocks away.

Anger of the incidents shattered what had appeared to be a stable bipartisan funding deal and refocused congressional debate on the conduct of immigration officers operating under Trump's aggressive crackdown.

- 'Talks are ongoing' -

Schumer has demanded that DHS funding be split off from the broader spending package and addressed separately, paired with new legal limits on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and related agencies.

Democrats say they are prepared to pass the other five bills immediately -- covering departments such as defense, health, education, transportation and financial services -- if Republicans agree to that separation.

Democrats are pushing particularly for an end to roving ICE patrols, tightening requirements for search warrants, establishing a universal code of conduct governing the use of force, prohibiting officers from wearing masks and mandating body cameras and proper identification.

Republican leaders have resisted splitting the package, arguing that altering the legislation would slow passage and risk triggering the very shutdown Democrats say they want to avoid.

The House and Senate both have to approve the exact same bill texts before they can become law. But the House is on a break.

Lawmakers have raised concerns about the consequences of a DHS shutdown for agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) during severe winter weather.

The White House has become more directly involved in the negotiations as the vote approaches, according to US media, with Trump aides exploring whether a temporary DHS funding extension could defuse the crisis.

Democrats, however, have warned they will not accept informal assurances or executive actions in place of legislation.

M.AbuKhalil--SF-PST