Government shutdown: Republicans mull escape hatch

Republican senators appear to be opening the door to preventing a partial government shutdown as the chamber prepares to start voting on a House-passed package to fully fund a group of federal agencies through the remaining fiscal year.

The Senate is set to vote on six funding bills as early as Thursday morning. If the chamber doesn’t pass all of them, much of the federal government would shut down Friday at 12:01 ET.

The bills would fund the Department of Homeland Security and several other agencies, including the Treasury and Defense departments. While the package once looked certain to clear the Senate and avoid a shutdown, the killing of U.S. citizen Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents Saturday in Minneapolis derailed it.

Democrats are demanding that the DHS portion of the bill be stripped from the package and weighed separately to make changes to how the agency operates, a move that Republicans have so far resisted. On Wednesday, some Senate Republicans began to embrace the idea of splitting off DHS, as a shutdown looms just months after a record 43-day closure last year.

The measure will require 60 votes to clear the Senate filibuster. Republicans hold only 53 seats in the upper chamber, meaning Democrats can block it if they withhold their votes.

“Rather than scuttling the whole package, I say let’s go and pass what we can,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said in an interview with reporters at the Capitol on Wednesday.

“I think all the bills will pass except Homeland Security, and then we can sit down and talk about Homeland Security,” said Kennedy, who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Asked how many of his Republican colleagues support such a move, Kennedy said: “A bunch.”

Indeed, numerous Republicans said Wednesday that while they would like to see the entire package pass the Senate, splitting off DHS is a palatable off-ramp.

“We are going to see what happens when that vote comes up,” said Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., another member of the appropriations committee. “[But] if the Democrats block it, [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer has already said that he’s willing to move the five, and so I certainly have an open mind on that.”

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told CNBC that if Democrats are “okay with five of the six bills,” then “we ought to figure out a way to get those done.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in a press conference Wednesday that such proposals are so far “hypotheticals” and that he would “reserve optionality.”

“I think the best path forward, as I’ve said, is to keep the package intact,” Thune said. “If there are things that the Democrats want that the administration can agree with them about, then let’s do that.”

Democrats are warning that a separate negotiation with the administration would not be enough to…