U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) released the following statement after the Senate passed a government funding deal secured by President Trump following Senate Democrats’ refusal to support the House-passed package of six bipartisan appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2026 in an attempt to reward criminal illegal aliens for breaking the law:

“It is appalling that Democrats would force federal agencies to shut down and jeopardize winter storm recovery resources from FEMA because of their political vendetta against DHS and ICE for enforcing the rule of law,” said Senator Blackburn. “More than a dozen Tennesseans lost their lives because of Winter Storm Fern, but Democrats chose to put critical aid at risk for families in need of assistance because they are upset President Trump is keeping his promise to remove rapists, pedophiles, murderers, drug traffickers, and other heinous criminals from our country. It’s time for Democrats to start siding with law-abiding American citizens instead of criminal illegal aliens, and I urge our colleagues in the House to send this package to the President’s desk as soon as possible. I look forward to seeing President Trump sign this into law to end the Biden-era bloated budgets and put us on a path to curbing out-of-control spending.”

Friday night January 30, 2026, the Senate passed an appropriations package to fund the U.S. Departments of War, Treasury, State, Health and Human Services, Labor, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Education, and other federal agencies through September 30, 2026.

President Trump negotiated a government funding deal to maintain current funding levels at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through a continuing resolution instead of caving to the Democrats’ radical demands to defund DHS.

As a consequence of Senate Democrats’ obstruction, funding will lapse for federal agencies at midnight tonight as the appropriations package passed by the Senate returns to the House for another vote before going to President Trump’s desk to be signed into law.

Last year, Democrats forced the longest government shutdown in history, inflicting needless pain on the American people to appease the radical left.