By SUZANNE DOWNING
Sen. Lisa Murkowski once again found herself the concerned moderate in Washington’s latest funding breakdown, this time as the Department of Homeland Security slid toward a partial shutdown over immigration politics this weekend.
The lapse stems from the annual appropriations fight for Fiscal Year 2026. By late January, the Senate had moved most of the government’s spending bills, approving funding for 11 of the 12 major appropriations measures.
But one department was left hanging: Homeland Security.
DHS covers agencies central to national security and public safety, including the Coast Guard, TSA, FEMA, the Secret Service, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It was ICE, not FEMA or the Coast Guard, that became the sticking point for Murkowski and the Democrats.
Democrats demanded limits on immigration enforcement operations, criticizing what they called overly aggressive tactics by ICE. Republicans rejected those restrictions outright, arguing Democrats were attempting to weaken border enforcement through the appropriations process.
Unable to reach agreement, the Senate passed only a short-term continuing resolution for DHS, extending funding through Feb. 13. Friday the 13th left the department operating on borrowed time, with a shutdown clock ticking toward midnight.
Murkowski supported temporary funding extensions and publicly signaled openness to “reforms” to ICE operations, placing herself among the Democrat camp. But as the deadline approached, negotiations stalled.
By Friday, Congress was deadlocked. Democrats blocked a longer-term DHS funding bill. Republicans refused to accept immigration enforcement restrictions. Instead of staying in Washington to hammer out an agreement, lawmakers recessed, many leaving for overseas conferences or returning to their districts.
Murkowski, asked about the bleak prospects, was her usual concerned self: “We are not even going to pretend that we are trying to figure it out,” she was quoted as saying, adding, “It doesn’t look great.”
For Alaska, DHS funding involves the Coast Guard’s missions, TSA staffing at airports, FEMA disaster response, and border and maritime enforcement, all of which fall under the Homeland Security umbrella.
Alaska’s senior senator did not emerge as a driving force to avert the lapse, but she did vote with Republicans to keep Homeland Security open.
One thought on “Murkowski expressed familiar ‘concern’ as Homeland Security shuts down”
“And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and her name was Lisa, and Democrats followed with her. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the country, to kill with ‘bipartisanship’, and with continuing resolutions, and with the fillibuster, and with bogus impeachments, and with the RINOs of the land.”