On Wednesday, the Senate reached a deal on a massive budget deal that would boost military and domestic spending over the next two years. But one thing that deal doesn’t include is a resolution on the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program. That is proving to be a problem in the House. On Wednesday, shortly after Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer announced their deal, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi embarked on an eight-hour record-breaking monologue demanding Republicans take action on immigration.
The government will shut down at midnight if a deal is not reached. The Senate is expected to pass its agreement with over 70 votes and head home. In the House, the dynamic is more complicated. This budget should (but probably won’t) end the myth that the GOP is the party of fiscal responsibility once and for all—it increases spending in a way that would have been unthinkable when President Obama was in office. That could make it a hard pill to swallow for some conservatives, though the boost in defense spending will undoubtedly bring many Republicans on board.
Democrats, meanwhile, are torn. Some want Pelosi to shut down the government over DACA, which provided protections to some 800,000 undocumented immigrants brought into this country as children; others are content to end the hostage situation that has dominated Capitol Hill for the past several months and tackle immigration in a standalone bill before DACA expires on March 5.
It’s possible that Pelosi and Ryan will reach some agreement about how to handle immigration and avert a shutdown. But right now, the spending bill’s passage through the House is in jeopardy and a shutdown seems more likely than not.