Congress delays return to Washington due to winter storm
The House and Senate have postponed their first votes of the week from Monday to Tuesday, giving lawmakers an extra day to return to Washington as a winter storm is set to hit the area.
That means a Department of Homeland Security shutdown that began Feb. 14 will continue through at least Tuesday — and likely longer, as there have been no signs of an imminent deal to break the impasse.
Democrats are blocking a DHS funding bill to force changes to how U.S. deportation forces operate after two U.S. citizens were killed in Minneapolis.
Republicans say the Democrats’ demands go too far and would hamper immigration enforcement.
The Senate was scheduled to take another procedural vote on the DHS funding bill Monday evening but pushed that vote to Tuesday evening because the weather forecast could hamper lawmakers’ ability to return to Washington.
The nation’s capital and surrounding regions are projected to get two to six inches of snow overnight Sunday into Monday morning. Conditions are expected to be worse in other areas of the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions from which many lawmakers would be traveling.
The Senate’s schedule change was announced hours after the House decided to push its first vote of the week from Monday evening to Tuesday afternoon.
That will make for an extra short week in the House, which already had an abbreviated schedule with last votes scheduled for Wednesday.
House Democrats are scheduled to hold their annual issues conference Wednesday through Friday in Leesburg, Virginia.
President Trump’s State of the Union address is still scheduled for Tuesday night.
The executive branch is also adjusting its schedule due to the winter storm, instituting a two-hour delay Monday and allowing federal employees to take unscheduled telework or leave.
“We think this will give folks some more flexibility in the am if the snow comes in as expected overnight,” Scott Kapur, director of the Office of Personnel Management, said on social media.
“Because the temperatures are not nearly as cold as we saw in the last storm, we don’t think there is as much of a concern around serious icing that would mandate a full shutdown,” he wrote.
