US homeland security department on track for shutdown after funding bill fails in Senate

Lawmakers left Washington for a long weekend without resolving an impasse over much-criticized agency’s funding

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is on course for an official shutdown at midnight after lawmakers left Washington for a long weekend without resolving an impasse over the much-criticized agency’s funding.

A range of services, including domestic flights and the US Coastguard, could be vulnerable to disruption after the Senate failed on Thursday to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to pass the DHS appropriations bill. Democrats blocked the funding in protest over violent tactics used in the Trump administration’s recent immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.

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