Congress was close enough to passing a federal budget that leaders could smell it. But just when Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) thought he’d finally caught a break and done something historic, his work — and the House’s — has been completely upended. The instant protestor Alex Pretti was shot by ICE agents in Minneapolis last month, the dream of sending all 12 appropriations bills to the president’s desk for the first time in 29 years vanished — swallowed up by the Democrats’ decision to slam the brakes on the process and demand an overhaul of Homeland Security. Now, with as many question marks on Capitol Hill as snow piles, Americans are back on a familiar roller coaster: the government shutdown. 

Pretti’s death, which everyone would agree was an unnecessary and avoidable tragedy, didn’t just spark concern from Democrats but Republicans too, who started publicly challenging the aggressive nature of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s deportation strategy. It had only been a matter of time, many agreed, until the powder keg of Minneapolis exploded. “I think both sides would have to acknowledge we should not move forward with what has been happening,” Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) conceded on Friday’s “Washington Watch.” And to his credit, the congressman pointed out, “The president has, I think, thoughtfully agreed that he needs to relook at the process.” 

Sending veteran Border Czar Tom Homan to the wasps’ nest of Minnesota has reassured a lot of people that things will soon be under control. “I didn’t come to seek photo ops or headlines,” Homan insisted. “I came here to seek solutions. Nothing’s ever perfect,” he admitted. “Anything can be improved on. And what we have been working on is making this operation safer, more efficient, by the book. I’m staying,” he underscored, “until the problem is gone.”

Despite these reassurances, Democrats still insist on taking the government’s funding hostage, a strategy that has — unsurprisingly — infuriated conservatives. Johnson, who watched everything he’d worked for on appropriations implode, could only shake his head at the political hot potato that’s back in his lap. “The House did its job,” he told Family Research Council President Tony Perkins of the budget bills. “I mean, everyone is applauding. The media has written that it was unexpected. … Once again, they anticipated our downfall,” he said on Saturday’s “This Week on Capitol Hill.” “We got 12 separate appropriations bills passed through the House [for the] first time in many years. … And we did it in bipartisan fashion. That’s what it requires when we have such a small margin in our majority. We’re very proud of that accomplishment.”

The speaker paused before highlighting his very real frustrations with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who commandeered the progress and put everything both chambers worked toward in limbo. “… Democrats, in my view, are trying to play games with this. They’re trying to tie what’s happened in Minneapolis with the appropriations process. And it’s not a credible argument. They say they want reforms in the Department of Homeland Security. Well, fine. Let’s talk about that,” Johnson offered. “But what they’re forgetting to note, the important thing, is that the funding for [ICE] has already been provided. We did a big tranche of funding in the Big Beautiful Bill last summer,” he wanted people to know. “And so, holding up the appropriation right now doesn’t even accomplish anything they say they want to achieve. It creates a very dicey situation in the House.”

That’s putting it mildly. In the last handful of days, after intense negotiations between the president and Schumer, the Senate ultimately agreed to split up the package of legislation — isolating Homeland Security so that the two parties can deal with that headache separately. Late Friday, Majority Leader John Thune’s (R-S.D.) chamber managed to pass the five regular appropriations bills and a two-week continuing resolution for DHS. But now that the bills have been divided up, the House is forced to revisit them all over again — a recipe for disaster with Johnson’s ever-shrinking margin and the competing interests that have surfaced since this nightmare began. 

Adding to the drama, as of midnight Friday, the government remains partially shut down. 

Thune understood the jam he was putting Johnson in by carving up the legislation, but rather than risk a complete collapse of half of the appropriations bills, the majority leader decided to bet on the speaker’s ability to wrangle his fractious caucus together. Even so, Republicans are under no illusion that this will be an easy lift. Senator John Kennedy (R-La.) understands the angst. “If the bill goes back to the House of Representatives,” he said when things were still uncertain in his own chamber, “… then you’ve got another steep hill to climb over there,” he predicted. 

In both parties, members are seizing the moment to make new demands on the bill, arguing that this is their chance to load up DHS’s budget with policy proposals they couldn’t include the first time around. Then, of course, there are the Left’s must-have ICE reforms: more training, a prohibition on masks, a code of conduct for agents, mandatory body cameras, tighter rules on warrants, and more. While some of these may not be unreasonable requests, Johnson took to the Sunday news circuit to set realistic expectations. “Taking the masks off and putting their names and addresses on their uniforms,” he warned, “there won’t be” enough GOP votes for that.

These are just some of the complexities facing House leaders as the clock continues to tick. Originally, the speaker had hoped to fast-track the votes — but those hopes were dashed by Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) in talks over the weekend. Now, the earliest the speaker can get the ball rolling is Tuesday, after the Rules Committee meets and a procedural vote is set. 

“We’ll get this done by Tuesday, I’m convinced,” the speaker said, sounding an optimistic tone on “Fox News Sunday.” “I don’t understand why anybody would have a problem with this, though. Remember, these are the bills that have already been passed. We’re going to do it again. It’s a formality at this point.” Or so he hopes. No one knows a) whether Democrats will cooperate or b) if Johnson and Trump can get their skeptical party in line. “We’ll have a lot of conversations to have with individual Republicans over the next 24 hours or so,” the speaker predicted. 

On another network, Schumer’s House counterpart was arguing that the chamber needed “a full and complete debate.” “[W]hat I’ve made clear to House Republicans is that they cannot simply move forward with legislation,” Jeffries sounded off on MS Now, “taking a my-way-or-the-highway approach.” Democrats, he continued, want “a robust, ironclad path to bringing about the type of change that the American people are demanding” in immigration enforcement.

For now, the only thing people seem to agree on is the number of unknowns. For Johnson’s sake — and Congress’s — there’s a sincere hope that all these months of returning the Hill to regular order aren’t lost. “It really is a big achievement, and it’s something that I was doggedly determined to do when I was handed the gavel and became speaker over two years ago. I started talking about this as a top priority, and people rolled their eyes and said, ‘It’ll never happen again.’”

After all of the grueling hearings, committee work, debates, and votes over the last year, it’s no wonder the speaker is grieved to see it all undermined by Pretti’s unfortunate, but unrelated, death. Everyone in Congress should feel the same, he pointed out, reminding people that this herculean task to fund the government had been a joint effort. “Look, I’m applauding appropriators and members on both sides of the aisle who, who, who finally got that vision and decided to do this together. I hope that it doesn’t all fall apart because Chuck Schumer and a few Democrats in the Senate want to play politics right now. Let’s pray it doesn’t happen.”