U.S. Capitol Building [Reuters=Yonhap News]

U.S. President Donald Trump and Senate Democrats agreed on January 29 (local time) to pass a temporary budget for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), averting a government shutdown crisis, according to U.S. daily The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and others.

Earlier in the day, a motion to proceed with a package of six spending bills containing the budgets for federal government agencies including the DHS, Department of Defense, and Department of Health and Human Services was defeated in the Senate by a vote of 45 to 55.

Amid concerns of a shutdown due to the aftermath of a shooting incident in Minnesota, Democrats demanded reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and opposed the passage of the DHS budget, which includes ICE.

As a result, Senate Democrats and the White House entered negotiations, and the Senate narrowly avoided a shutdown by quickly passing five of the six spending bills that had already passed the House of Representatives.

According to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's office, an agreement was reached to pass five of the six budget packages separately, excluding the DHS, and extend the current DHS budget for two weeks.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-Minn.) [AP=Yonhap News]

President Trump supported this agreement and stated on Truth Social, "I hope both Republicans and Democrats will give the much-needed bipartisan 'YES' votes."

All bills amended by the Senate must be approved by the House of Representatives. Therefore, the Senate is expected to approve this agreement and send the amended budget package back to the House soon.

However, a short-term budget gap may be unavoidable, as the agreement between the White House and Democrats was reached just before the budget deadline of midnight on the 31st.

The House is in recess this week and has no official schedule until Monday, February 2nd. It is possible that House members will be convened over the weekend to pass the bill.

WSJ explained that some agencies might be temporarily closed for the short period that House members return, as a significant amount of government funding expires on the night of the 30th. However, foreign media outlets observed that the impact would be minimal due to it being a weekend.

'ICE OUT' banner hung in a residential area of Minneapolis [AFP=Yonhap News]

Amid growing backlash over the recent incident in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where two citizens were killed in a shooting by federal agents, Democrats had previously proposed reforms requiring ICE agents to remove their masks during enforcement, wear body cameras, and cease random checks, searches, and arrests without warrants.

Democrats had indicated their stance of not passing the DHS budget until the Trump administration agreed to reforms curbing ICE's hardline immigration enforcement.

In the United States, there was a shutdown lasting 43 days, from October 1 to November 12 of last year, which was the longest government shutdown in history, temporarily suspending some functions of the federal government.

At that time, the federal budget was not passed because Republicans opposed the extension of subsidies for the health insurance reform law (ACA, also known as Obamacare) that Democrats were demanding. The shutdown ended when both parties found a compromise amid concerns of a prolonged shutdown.