Government Shutdown

Senate Republicans are warning that the ongoing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown is unfolding at a dangerous moment for national security, as intelligence officials monitor potential Iranian retaliation and sleeper-cell activity inside the United States.

Federal officials have raised concerns that Iran may attempt to activate sleeper cells or carry out attacks on U.S. soil as the war with the Islamic Republic intensifies.

Despite those warnings, Senate Democrats again blocked an effort to reopen DHS this week, prolonging a partial shutdown that has now stretched nearly four weeks.

President Donald Trump slammed congressional Democrats for holding out on funding the Department of Homeland Security amid threats of terrorism from Iran.

When asked about reports that Iran has activated terrorist sleeper cells abroad, Trump said his administration is “very much on top of it,” though the ongoing DHS shutdown is a challenge.

“One of the things we have to do is get the Democrats to stop the Democrat shutdown,” he said. “Because, as you know, the apparatus that looks into that [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer and the Democrats have shut it down, which tells you they probably hate our country a lot, but the Democrats have to open that up.”

The agency has been shut down for 24 days over Democrat demands to reform Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Trump said he has “very, very good intelligence” on Iran’s sleeper cells. However, he said the shutdown prevents the administration from handling them as they want.

There were two more votes held in Congress on Thursday in hopes of fully funding the federal government, in both the U.S. House of Representative and the Senate, by covering part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The measures had something of a mixed reception.

As of late Sunday, at least three U.S. military members will be coming home in caskets — among the first casualties of the Trump administration’s “regime change” campaign in Iran. There will “likely be more” to come in the days ahead, President Donald Trump warned. He said U.S. operations in Iran will continue until all of the administration’s objectives are met. The details of those objectives remained foggy Sunday.

While the days-old military operation is far from Mission Accomplished, it did check off a significant box: taking out Iran’s evil-as-poison supreme leader, or the “avuncular and magnanimous” religious scholar as the inexhaustible clown car that is the New York Times described a guy who legitimately could be likened to Adolf Hitler. Old Uncle Khamenei is dead now, and presumably checking into hotel hell (You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave).

As my late grandfather was fond of pointing out, it’s a tough world, but sometimes you get a laugh out of it. Case in point: Democrats in and out of Congress were whining for more oversight of the actions of Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), but now the partial government shutdown that Democrats voted for and caused has curtailed the very department that was carrying out that oversight – the Department of Homeland Security.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) sharply rebuked fellow Senate Democrats after becoming the lone member of his party to side with Republicans in voting to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

In a fiery statement, Fetterman warned that Democrats were choosing party loyalty over the country’s security.

The standoff erupted as Senate Democrats refused to support funding for DHS in pursuit of sweeping restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The Schumer Shutdown has officially ended!

President Trump just signed the funding bill to re-open the government, which was passed by the House this evening.

Watch the historic moment here:

🚨 BREAKING: President Trump has officially signed the CR to RE-OPEN the government from the Schumer Shutdown

Trump REFUSED to budge. Not a SINGLE PENNY went to illegals, as Chuck Schumer wanted

GREAT WORK, 47! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/1lpWWcKygZ

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) November 13, 2025

The longest shutdown in U.S. history has just ended but voices on both sides of the aisle are warning that another shutdown may be looming at expiration of the current funding ends on Jan 30.

A number of tax credit subsidies for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are set to expire at the end of this year and Democrats have insisted that they be renewed as a condition to supporting any new funding bills.

Republicans acknowledge that another fight over the ACA tax credits could cause another government closure at the end of January.

Blurb:

Democrat Senator Dick Durbin exposed Schumer’s shutdown plan during remarks on the Senate floor on Monday.

In a stunning admission, Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dick Durbin said the Democrats’ shutdown strategy was designed to starve children.

After 40 days of a government shutdown, eight Senate Democrats caved and joined Republicans on Sunday evening to advance legislation to reopen the government. Durbin was among those who broke ranks with his party to help push the bill forward.

Democratic senators and independents who caucus with them voted in favor, including King (ME), Fetterman (PA), Cortez Masto (NV), Shaheen (NH), Hassan (NH), Rosen (NM), Kaine (VA), and Dick Durbin (IL).

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Monday that he will call House members back to Washington as soon as the Senate passes an amended Continuing Resolution (CR) to reopen the government.

“We’ll give a 36-hour formal and official notice,” Johnson told reporters during a news conference on Capitol Hill, Monday morning.

The deal, having passed its first procedural hurdle in the Senate, is expected to lead to the government reopening in a matter of days, pending final votes in both chambers and President Trump’s signature.

Johnson sent House members home on September 19 and has kept the chamber in recess, effectively preventing further legislative action until the Senate approved the House’s funding bill with 60 votes.

After 36 days of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) historic federal government shutdown, Democrats are quietly scrambling to find a way out.

It comes as divisions within the Democrat ranks and a growing backlash from unpaid workers are complicating any move to end the standoff.

The shutdown, which entered record-breaking territory Tuesday night, has now surpassed the 2019 mark to become the longest in U.S. history.

Despite public frustration and mounting economic fallout, Democrats have continued to block Republican efforts to reopen the government.

Inside the Senate, Democratic Party leaders huddled behind closed doors for nearly three hours.

During the meeting, Democrats were debating possible off-ramps, including a vote on Obamacare subsidies and attaching spending bills to an extended continuing resolution (CR) that could run into December or January.

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., elaborated on the group’s support for a longer-term continuing resolution in an interview this week with The Daily Signal.

The group had released a statement on Monday supporting the passage of a continuing resolution to fund the government “as far into 2026 as possible (ideally, past the November 2026 election and with necessary defense stop-start anomalies).”

The statement went on to note that such a CR would “effectively keep federal discretionary spending flat at the same levels since 2023,” and “block any further effort by Democrats and the Swamp to advance a budget-busting, pork-filled, lobbyist-handout omnibus in November or December.”

The Daily Signal also received a statement from Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., who concurred. “Congress must act responsibly and pass a long-term continuing resolution to fund the federal government—not another short-term patch that merely delays the inevitable. These constant, stopgap extensions have become a political crutch, allowing Congress to lurch from one manufactured crisis to the next instead of governing with fiscal sanity and discipline.”

President Trump on Wednesday redoubled his efforts to end the Senate filibuster rule, despite opposition from key Republicans.

Trump has repeatedly called for the elimination of the filibuster, urging GOP senators to use the so-called “nuclear option” to pass legislation with a simple majority. The filibuster currently requires 60 out of 100 senators to agree on most legislation, which has been a major obstacle in ending the government shutdown that began on October 1.
Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, and would be able to pass bills with a simple majority if the filibuster were removed.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and other Republican leaders have resisted weakening the filibuster, citing concerns about long-term consequences and precedent.

Thune and Johnson have failed to enact federal election security measures or impeach activist judges accused of bias in the ten months since Republicans gained congressional majorities.