WASHINGTON (OSV News) — President Donald Trump signed into law a funding package to end the partial government shutdown Feb. 3, shortly following its passage in the House, which included an agreement for funding for the Department of Homeland Security to be renegotiated to include new, stronger constraints on federal immigration officers.
The same week, advocates of international religious freedom met for a key summit in Washington. Planned Parenthood dropped a lawsuit challenging temporary cuts to its Medicaid funding.
— Congress ends partial government shutdown
Despite ultimately agreeing on a path to end the partial government shutdown, negotiations to avoid a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security after approving a two-week extension for that department continue.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both New York Democrats, issued a list of 10 items they want to include among new restrictions, such as prohibiting immigration enforcement agents from wearing masks to obscure their identity and requiring them to wear body cameras, as well as a prohibition on “funds from being used to conduct enforcement near sensitive locations, including medical facilities, schools, child-care facilities, churches, polling places, courts, etc.”
But Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., argued in comments to reporters at the Capitol, “It’s totally unrealistic.”
“Their demand list went from three items to 10 items. It just shows you they’re not, they’re not serious yet,” Thune said, arguing that banning agents’ masks would “set them up to get doxxed.”
“There’s just a bunch of stuff in there that’s a nonstarter, and they know it,” he added. “There are a few things that, actually, there’s probably some room to maneuver on there, to negotiate on. But a lot of that stuff, obviously, just wasn’t serious.”
The deadline to fund DHS is Feb. 13.
Faith leaders including Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, have called for prayer and calm amid growing tensions around immigration enforcement operations.
— Planned Parenthood drops lawsuit over temporary funding cuts
Planned Parenthood moved to drop a key lawsuit over its claims that being temporarily stripped of its Medicaid funds is unconstitutional.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, legislation Trump signed on July 4 that enacted key items of his legislative agenda on issues including taxes and immigration, included a provision eliminating funds to health providers who also perform abortions, but just for one year.
Although it was not named in the provision, Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, sued in response to the provision stripping funds from abortion providers, arguing the parameters for ending these funds effectively singled it out.
The end of the lawsuit — one of multiple legal challenges to the provision — came after a December ruling from a federal appeals court that the Trump administration could continue to withhold Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood and related entities. A separate lawsuit filed by a coalition of Democratic-led states that also challenged the provision was met with a similar ruling in January, but that suit remains ongoing as of Feb. 6. Another lawsuit filed in Maine by a network of other clinics was voluntarily dismissed in October.
In a joint Jan. 30 statement, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and two of its affiliates — Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts and Planned Parenthood Association of Utah — said they filed a notice dismissing their lawsuit.
“The goal of this lawsuit has always been to help Planned Parenthood patients get the care they deserve from their trusted provider,” the press release said. “Based on the 1st Circuit’s decision, it is clear that this lawsuit is no longer the best way to accomplish that goal.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi said on social media Feb. 3, “??Planned Parenthood might look for another path to pursue this meritless litigation, but they won’t find a viable one.”
But the pro-life group Live Action argued, “The defund only lasts until July 4th.”
“We must defund Planned Parenthood. Permanently,” Live Action’s Feb. 3 social media post said.
— International Religious Freedom Summit, House hearing examine threats from regimes
The cause of international religious freedom is tied to global stability and is increasingly threatened by authoritarian regimes, said speakers and participants in the sixth annual International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington Feb. 2 and 3.
The summit, which brings together a diverse coalition of faith communities, policymakers and experts, seeks to advance freedom of religion, conscience and belief around the world.
Scott Busby, senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said during a panel discussion at the summit, “Religious freedom is a barometer, generally I have found in my career for how other freedoms are treated similarly.”
“I found that where you see restrictions on other fundamental freedoms besides religious freedom, you then also see restrictions on religious freedom,” he said.
At a related joint House subcommittee hearing — chaired by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., chair of the Subcommittee on Africa, and Rep. Maria Salazar, R-Fla., chair of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere — lawmakers considered key challenges in promoting international religious freedom abroad, with some expressing concern about certain steps the Trump administration has not yet taken on the issue.
At that hearing, Sam Brownback, former ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom at the U.S. Department of State, said that “the amount of Christian killing around the world is at an all-time high for Christendom,” but “I can repeat that statement for a number of faiths.”
— Marquette poll: As Trump’s tariffs await Supreme Court ruling, most Americans disapprove
As the U.S. Supreme Court weighs a case concerning Trump’s sweeping tariff policy, a new Marquette Law School Poll national survey found that most U.S. adults said the court should rule against the president in the case.
In the survey, published Feb. 5, 63% of adults said the high court should uphold a lower court ruling that limits the president’s authority to impose tariffs, while 36% think the court should overturn the lower court’s ruling and rule in favor of the president.
Meanwhile, the Jesuit school’s poll also found that more Americans disapprove of the tariffs. A majority, 56%, said that tariffs hurt the U.S. economy, while 30% said they think the tariffs help the economy, with another 14% that said tariffs don’t make much difference.
Trump argued the tariffs, or a tax imposed by a government on imported goods, would protect American manufacturing, but some economists have cautioned they will raise consumer prices on many consumer goods, with some economists also predicting they could lead to a recession.
When the high court heard oral argument in the case in November, economists who spoke with OSV News raised concerns about the potential impact of that policy on the poor.
Religious goods industry professionals previously told OSV News the tariffs created uncertainty for their businesses that rely on imports.
Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X @kgscanlon.
The post Washington Roundup: Partial government shutdown ends; Planned Parenthood drops key lawsuit first appeared on OSV News.
