Axios Hill Leaders

February 06, 2026
Happy Thursday! Tonight's edition is 727 words, 3 minutes.
- πͺ Fake shutdown
- β’οΈ AOC warns Schumer
- π₯·π» Kentucky family feud
1 big thing: πͺ Fake shutdown
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is opening the door to a shutdown in which the only agency that's defunded already has billions in cash.
Why it matters: Schumer insists his side is ready to withhold votes on a funding deal if Republicans won't agree to reforms to DHS. But he's also signaling that he doesn't have a high pain tolerance.
- Just two days after the House separated DHS from five other funding bills, Schumer said he's open to separating ICE funding from the rest of DHS to spare TSA, FEMA, and the Coast Guard.
- "TSA is very important," Schumer told reporters this afternoon.
Zoom in: ICE has a roughly $10 billion annual budget, but it got more than $75 billion (to spend over four years) from the "Big, Beautiful Bill" to hire agents and build more detention capacity.
- "The minority leader might think that he has leverage to defund law enforcement," Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said today.
- "He is wrong. Border Patrol is funded. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is funded," Barrasso said.
Driving the news: DHS funding β without ICE β has gained traction among Democrats since it was first floated Tuesday.
- Sen. Jackie Rosen (D-Nev.), one of eight Democrats who voted to reopen the government in November, called it a common-sense strategy. "Don't stop everything because you have an argument over something," she told us.
- Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) also appeared on board. "I would certainly be interested in separating ICE out from the rest," she told reporters. "It's a version of what we did last week β we isolated DHS."
- π Over in the House, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, also backed a carveout today. She said in a statement that she'd support DHS funding without ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) while the two sides keep negotiating.
Zoom out: Congress has until Feb. 13 to fund DHS, a short timeframe that Republicans have long argued is too compressed to find a bipartisan compromise on reforming ICE.
- Earlier in the day, Senate Majority Leader John Thune raised the prospect of keeping senators in town next weekend, which would effectively cancel CODELs, including an annual favorite: the Munich Security Conference.
The bottom line: At least one Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.), appears to agree with Barrasso.
- "We all know DHS has more than enough funding right now, after the Big Beautiful Bill," he said.
- The debate is "feeling more and more like what's on Bravo."
β Hans Nichols and Justin Green
2. β’οΈ AOC warns Schumer
"It could be a huge failure" for Senate Democrats, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) told us yesterday, if they fail to secure the reforms the party is demanding.
- Democrats released a list of 10 demands last night for ICE reform.
Why it matters: Ocasio-Cortez would be Schumer's most dangerous potential primary challenger in 2028 if she decides to run for Senate instead of president.
- "I don't think Republicans want a DHS shutdown," Ocasio-Cortez told us.
- She added: "If Donald Trump wants to β¦ issue the State of the Union with the entire Department of Homeland Security shut down, I think that is a terrible indictment of his leadership. And I do think they care."
The bottom line: Rep. Primila Jayapal (D-Calif.) and Rep. Chuy GarcΓa (D-Ill.) both argued that public opinion against ICE is another piece of leverage for Democrats.
βΒ Andrew Solender
3. π₯·π» Kentucky family feud
House Speaker Mike Johnson's "incumbent protection program" had a rough day, as Republicans piled on Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).
- π€² This morning, Trump called Massie a "moron" during the National Prayer Breakfast.
- π This afternoon, Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.), who is running to succeed retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), became the first member of the state's delegation to endorse Massie's primary opponent Ed Gallrein.
Why it matters: Massie told us this week that "the speaker of the House should say something," referring to Trump's attack on his wife.
- On Monday, Trump attacked Massie's wife on Truth Social, claiming she had made the congressman "a Liberal."
The bottom line: Johnson was able to broker a Trump-Massie truce last summer, we previously reported.
- Days later, Massie ramped up his public criticism of the administration's handling of the Epstein files.
β Kate Santaliz
This newsletter was edited by Justin Green and copy edited by Brad Bonhall.
Sign up for Axios Hill Leaders




