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Colorado delegation splits in House vote to end federal government shutdown

Colorado’s U.S. House members divided mostly along party lines Tuesday in separate votes on a funding deal to end the federal government’s partial shutdown, while giving Congress more time to negotiate long-term funding for the Department of Homeland Security.

Lawmakers passed a roughly $1.2 trillion spending package that finishes funding the vast majority of federal agencies and programs through Sept. 30 on a bipartisan 217-214 vote, cementing an agreement brokered last week between Senate Democrats and President Donald Trump, who signed the bill soon after its passage.

The legislation funds DHS at current levels only until Feb. 13, however, in response to demands by Democratic lawmakers to impose restrictions on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies after the shooting deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal immigration officers last month in Minneapolis.

Three of the state’s four House Republicans — U.S. Reps. Jeff Hurd, Jeff Crank and Gabe Evans — voted for the bill, while U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert voted against it, joining the delegation’s four Democrats, U.S. Reps. Diana DeGette, Joe Neguse, Jason Crow and Brittany Pettersen.

In all, 21 Democrats voted for the package, matching the 21 Republicans who voted against it.

“There can be NO CHANGES at this time,” Trump said Monday in a post on his Truth Social website. “We will work together in good faith to address the issues that have been raised, but we cannot have another long, pointless, and destructive Shutdown.”

Lawmakers stayed in their corners in an earlier, procedural vote that passed 217-215, with all but one Republican, Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, voting in favor of advancing the bill, and all Democrats voting against.

“I voted NO on the 5-bill minibus,” Boebert said in a post on X after the final vote, using a shorthand term for the appropriations package, which authorizes spending for five federal departments. “Republicans have the trifecta and we should fund DHS at Trump levels for strong border security — not continue the Biden-Schumer budget.”

Boebert said she also opposed congressional earmarks included in the spending package that fund “woke facilities.” She noted, however, that she “fought hard” to secure $3 million in funding in the package she voted against for transportation projects in her district.

Crow told Colorado Politics on Monday that he refused to vote to fund DHS “unless we put very real guardrails in place” on immigration operations.

“We need to have better protections in the appropriations provisions for us to assert our rights, and very clear standards,” Crow said. Among the requirements he said he wants are that agents “cannot be hiding behind masks anymore,” must wear body cameras and undergo more extensive training, and be subject to background checks.

“I’m certainly not going to vote for funding unless there are some pretty major changes to this,” he said.

The Trump administration this week announced that federal officers in Minnesota will get body cameras.


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