Sen. Mark Warner is resisting suggestions from some fellow Democrats pushing for a freeze in funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement even if it means another government shutdown.
In an interview on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday, the Virginia senator, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he was concerned about the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE officer in Minneapolis on Wednesday, but added that the government funding deadline at the end of this month should not be used as leverage.
"I think we went through the longest government shutdown in American history last year. I don't think we need to repeat it," Warner said when asked if he would back a move to freeze funding for ICE ahead of the funding deadline.
Ahead of the new Jan. 30 funding deadline, Congress is trying to adopt three appropriations packages to avoid another shutdown, The Hill reported.
One of those will include funding for the Department of Homeland Security, and some Democrats want to withhold their backing for that bill in order to demand new limits on President Donald Trump's use of ICE across the country.
Instead, Warner said he is optimistic about the potential for bipartisan cooperation in Congress, pointing to a recent war powers resolution supported by some Republicans.
"I do think we need to go ahead and get our appropriations bills done, keep the government operating," he said. "And I do hope — and I think we're starting to see a little bit of splintering when [we] got the war powers resolution passed in the Senate the other day."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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