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Big News - Senate Dems Will Not Vote For DHS Funding Bill In Current Form

Congrats everyone. Progress. Lots more to do.

Simon Rosenberg

Jan 25

READ IN APP

Evening all. Coming back to with you news. This afternoon two of the seven Senate Dems who voted to re-open the government in November came out against the DHS appropriations bill, making it hard to see how it can get 60 votes in its current form.

Here’s Senator Cortez Masto:

Here’s Senator Jackie Rosen:

Another of those seven, Senator Tim Kaine, came out against the funding package yesterday. Here is what he posted on social media:

If the Senate were to vote on these appropriations bills individually, I would support some of them. But the House is bundling six bills into a single package a week before a budget deadline and skipping town to try and jam senators into a single up or down vote. Appropriations bills shouldn’t just fund priorities; they should also place restraints on a runaway executive. (1/3)

Where are the funding restrictions to stop the President from unilaterally taking our sons and daughters into illegal wars, even endless wars, even wars against allies? Or to block deploying our troops against American citizens, as he has done and is threatening to do again? Or to impose effective safeguards against ICE operations that inflame tensions within our cities, terrorize our communities, and make all of us less safe? Or to stop the wholesale firing of federal employees and the unilateral cancellation of congressionally-appropriated dollars? (2/3)

Where are guardrails to stop the President from targeting states, like Virginia, that voted against him during his three presidential campaigns? We are not living in normal times. The President is acting chaotically and unlawfully and we shouldn’t give his deranged decisions the imprimatur of congressional approval by passing this legislation without significant amendment. (3/3)

Senate Leader Chuck Schumer just posted this:

The battle, my friends, is joined.

To return to the argument I’ve been making these past few days - to see this fight through Democrats must come together and act as one here. There needs to be a unified approach - Govs, Congressional leaders, big city mayors - where we lay out our vision and then fight for it, together. Senate and House Democrats should not be expected to make this fight alone. Just as Europe rallied for Denmark, and used their collective power to force Trump to retreat, we must now come together and use our collective power over what will be a grueling fight with Trump-Miller-Vance to force their retreat.

Here is what I wrote to you on Friday:

We are here now, deep into dangerous Mad King/Bond Villain territory. 2026 is no longer about affordability or restoring the ACA subsidies. It is about pro-democracy movement somehow coming together and forming a unified and far more powerful front against his dangerous Imperial and dictatorial designs.
In an ideal world, what we would see next week is a public statement signed by all Dem Governors, AGs, Senate and House Democrats that states clearly that
Rule of law must be re-established in America, ICE must be reined in, and Trump’s outrageous plunder and corruption must end
That he must back off his illegal and destructive territorial ambitions, end all these ridiculous tariffs, and re-commit to the Trans-Atlantic Alliance
Stake in ground. Unified voice. Muscular defense of liberty, democracy, and the American creed. Yes, it is time now for something akin to our Letter to America, and for our leaders to make clear, before it is too late, that we are willing to come together and fight for America, freedom, and democracy; and for us to start listing, clearly, his modern day “injuries,” “abuses,” and “usurpations.” That we elected an American President and not a dictator, and it is way past fucking time he start acting like one.
As we discussed yesterday the Europeans have shown us the way - no appeasement, only strength; come together for we are always stronger together than apart. To me these are the two big lessons from history - appeasement signals weakness, and encourages authoritarian escalation; and we must stick together at all costs no matter how hard that is at times.

Here’s the top of the NYT home page right now: