U.S. Senate fails to advance bill to fund DHS after nearly month-long shutdown

WASHINGTON, March 12 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Senate on Thursday failed to advance a House-passed bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), whose operations have been shut down for nearly a month due to bipartisan disagreement over immigration enforcement.

The procedural vote was 51-46, short of the 60 votes required to advance the bill. Senator John Fetterman from Pennsylvania was the only Democrat to vote with Republicans to advance the funding bill.

The fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens -- Renee Good and Alex Pretti -- by federal enforcement in Minneapolis in January have prompted Democrats to seek changes to how immigration agencies operate.

Disagreement over immigration enforcement regulations led to a deadlock in Congress, as Democrats requested that funding for DHS be removed from an omnibus funding package, resulting in a brief partial shutdown from Jan. 31 to Feb. 3.

The Congress then passed a funding package, which funded multiple U.S. federal agencies for the remainder of the fiscal year, but DHS only received a two-week continuing resolution at current funding levels, allowing both parties and the White House to continue negotiations.

Over the last four weeks, negotiations between the two parties on immigration enforcement have shown little progress.

Meanwhile, the department's functions, including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Coast Guard, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, have been crippled. Congestion at some U.S. airports has been reported in recent days due to TSA staffing shortages amid the partial shutdown. Enditem