By KEVIN FREKING and LISA MASCARO, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House will look to pass this year’s final tranche of spending bills on Thursday, an effort that is being complicated by Democratic lawmakers’ concerns that the measure funding the Department of Homeland Security inadequately addresses President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts.

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The House has already passed eight of the 12 annual appropriations bills that fund federal agencies and programs. If the final four bills pass on Thursday, action would then move to the Senate, with final passage needed before a Jan. 30 deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown.

House Democratic leaders Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Rep. Pete Aguilar of California announced in a closed-door meeting that they would oppose the Homeland Security bill. Their members are demanding a forceful stand in response to the Republican president’s immigration crackdown, most recently centered in the Minneapolis area, where more than 2,000 officers are stationed and where a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot Renee Good, a mother of three.

“There’s a very big concern about ICE being out of control,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the ranking Democratic lawmaker on the House Appropriations Committee.

But Democrats have few good options to express their opposition. DeLauro said that passing a continuing resolution to fund Homeland Security at current levels for the remainder of the budget year would cede spending decisions to Trump. There’s also little appetite for another shutdown, even if it would affect only a portion of the federal government.

“There is much more we must do to rein in DHS, which I will continue to press for. But the hard truth is that Democrats must win political power to enact the kind of accountability we need,” said Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

This year’s Homeland Security bill holds spending for ICE roughly flat from the prior year. It also restricts the ability of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to unilaterally shift funding and allocate federal dollars as she sees fit.

“It’s not everything we wanted. We wanted more oversight. But, look, Democrats don’t control the House. We don’t control the Senate or the White House. But we were able to add some oversight over Homeland,” said Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, a member of the Appropriations panel. He said he intends to vote for the bill.

Democrats voice their concerns privately and publicly

But most Democrats who emerged from the closed-door caucus meeting on Wednesday had a different view.

“I never support lawless operations,” said Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio.

“If it’s the status quo, I’m a no,” said Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill.

DeLauro, along with Cuellar, made a presentation about the bill to House Democrats during their closed-door meeting. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said she told her colleagues why she thought it was a mistake. Others who spoke up agreed, she said.

“I think this is just a really horrific time, and people understand what’s at stake,” Jayapal said. “We can’t treat this like it’s anything else. Our eyes are not lying to us.”

She explained that extra money for body cameras and other changes was insufficient. The bill provides $20 million that must be used for ICE and Customs and Border Protection officers when conducting enforcement actions.

She said she told her colleagues, “Nobody should try to sell this as an improvement. It’s not an improvement.”

But some Democrats in key swing districts will likely be seeing campaign ads targeting them if they vote against the Homeland Security funding bill. The campaign arm for House Republicans issued press releases on Wednesday targeting some 20 Democrats, saying they “will do anything to appease the ‘defund ICE’ crowd even if it means risking national security.”

Meanwhile, liberal advocacy groups are also applying pressure, saying Congress must take clear, immediate action to rein in the department.

“The DHS bill that was released clearly falls far short, and should be roundly rejected. Every Democrat should be voting against this funding bill, and Democratic leadership in both chambers should be actively whipping their caucus in opposition,” said Andrew O’Neill, national advocacy director for the group Indivisible.

Republicans are confident the bill will pass

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was optimistic that the funding bills would pass, including the Homeland Security measure. He can afford a few defections given the GOP’s razor-thin majority.

“All we do is win,” Johnson said.

The overall funding package before the House on Thursday contains roughly $1.2 trillion in spending. About two-thirds of that will go to the Defense Department.

Other departments that are funded through the package include Health and Human Services, Education, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development. Most federal spending is unaffected by the yearly battles in Congress, most notably Social Security and Medicare.

By JOSEPH FREDERICK, Associated Press

As the United States prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, an auction in New York will feature rare items that trace the nation’s history.

The event Friday at Christie’s, dubbed “We the People: America at 250,” will bring together foundational political texts, iconic American art and rare historical artifacts.

Among the highlights is a rare 1776 broadside printing of the Declaration of Independence produced in New Hampshire by printer Robert Luist Fowle, estimated at $3 million to $5 million.

“It’s historically significant because you get to see what people at the time actually saw,” said Peter Klarnet, senior specialist for books, manuscripts and Americana at Christie’s.

While the initial printing was produced by John Dunlap on the night of July 4, 1776 — with about 200 copies printed and only 26 known to survive — other printers quickly began producing their own versions.

“This is the way that everyday Americans would have encountered the Declaration of Independence whether it was tacked to a wall or read from the pulpit of their local congregation,” Klarnet said.

Another founding document up for sale is Rufus King’s edited draft of the U.S. Constitution, estimated at $3 million to $5 million. Printed just five days before the final version was issued on Sept. 17, 1787, the document captures the nation’s founding charter as it was being finalized.

“This is the Constitution taking final form,” Klarnet said. “You can see the edits being made in real time.”

King was a delegate from Massachusetts to the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. He was also a member of The Committee of Style, a five-member group tasked with refining the text.

“This puts you directly in Independence Hall as they’re drafting and making the final changes and edits to this remarkable document,” Klarnet said.

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The auction also includes a signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation. The authorized printed edition was commissioned for the Great Central Fair, a Civil War-era fundraiser held in Philadelphia in June 1864 to raise money for Union troops. The Proclamation is estimated at $3 million to $5 million.

“Lincoln, together with his Secretary of State William Seward and his Secretary John Nicolay, signed 48 copies of this,” Klarnet said, noting they were originally sold for $20 each — and not all sold at the time.

American art plays a major role in the sale as well. Leading the category is Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of George Washington — thought to have inspired the face on the U.S. dollar bill. The painting was commissioned by James Madison. It is estimated to bring between $500,000 and $1 million.

Other artworks include a Jamie Wyeth painting of John F. Kennedy accepting the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination at the Los Angeles Coliseum estimated at $200,000 to $300,000.

There is also Grant Wood’s original pencil sketch of American Gothic drawn on the back an envelope estimated at $70,000 to $100,000.

Beyond the founding documents, the sale features rare historical objects like the only known flag recovered by U.S. forces from the 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn. The flag is expected to sell for between $2 million and $4 million.

Historians say auctions like these underscore the role of private collectors in preserving the nation’s material past.

“Private collectors play an important role,” historian Harold Holzer said. “They save things, they preserve things, and ultimately they pass on their collections.”

For Holzer, the emotional power of the items remains meaningful.

“You almost feel the electricity from these relics,” Holzer said, “their impact on the people, who not only read these documents, but fought for what they were calling for.”

He calls the documents “great words fought for with blood.”

By GEIR MOULSON and JAMES BROOKS, Associated Press

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark’s prime minister insisted that her country can’t negotiate on its sovereignty on Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump said he agreed a “framework of a future deal” on Arctic security with the head of NATO.

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Trump on Wednesday abruptly scrapped the tariffs he had threatened to impose on eight European nations to press for U.S. control over Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark. It was a dramatic reversal hours after he insisted he wanted to get the island “including right, title and ownership” — though he also said he would not use force.

He said “additional discussions” on Greenland were being held concerning the Golden Dome missile defense program, a multilayered, $175 billion system that for the first time will put U.S. weapons in space. Trump offered few details, saying they were still being worked out.

NATO said its secretary general, Mark Rutte, hadn’t proposed any compromise to Danish sovereignty.

Denmark insists on territorial integrity

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said security in the Arctic is a matter for all of NATO, and it is “good and natural” that it be discussed between the U.S. president and Rutte. She said in a statement that she had spoken with Rutte “on an ongoing basis,” including before and after he met Trump in Davos.

She wrote that NATO is fully aware of the kingdom of Denmark’s position that anything political can be negotiated on, including security, investment and economic issues — “but we cannot negotiate on our sovereignty.”

“I have been informed that this has not been the case,” she said, adding that only Denmark and Greenland can make decisions on issues concerning Denmark and Greenland.

An Aurora Borealis is seen in the sky above Nuuk, Greenland, on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Frederiksen said that Denmark wants to continue engaging in constructive dialogue with allies on how to strengthen security in the Arctic, including the U.S. Golden Dome program, “provided that this is done with respect for our territorial integrity.”

Asked in an interview with Fox News whether Greenland would remain part of the kingdom of Denmark under the framework deal Trump announced, Rutte replied that “that issue did not come up anymore in my conversations tonight with the president.”

“He’s very much focused on what do we need to do to make sure that huge Arctic region, where change is taking place at the moment, where the Chinese and Russians are more and more active, how we can protect it,” he said. “That was really the focus of our discussions.”

NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said Thursday that Rutte “did not propose any compromise to sovereignty during his meeting with President Trump.” She said that negotiations between Denmark, Greenland and the U.S. “will go forward aimed at ensuring that Russia and China never gain a foothold – economically or militarily – in Greenland.”

Welcome and skepticism for Trump’s switch

On the streets of Copenhagen, some were skeptical about Trump’s switch.

President Donald Trump talks to media after a meeting about Greenland during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

“I think the man has said many things and done a lot of different things to what he says,” said Louise Pedersen, 22, who works with a startup company. “I have a hard time believing it. I think it’s terrifying that we stand here in 2026.”

She said it’s for Greenlanders to decide what happens with their land — “not Donald Trump.”

“I don’t really trust anything Mr. Trump is saying,” said Poul Bjoern Strand, 70, an advertising worker.

On the possibility of ceding territory, he said: “That’s not what the Greenlanders want, that’s not what the Danish people want, and … I cannot believe that Danes are going to follow that.”

Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany, one of the European countries that had faced Trump’s threat of tariffs over Greenland, underlined the need for European NATO allies to do more to secure the Arctic region and stressed that it is “a common trans-Atlantic interest.”

“We will protect Denmark, Greenland, the north from the threat posed by Russia,” he said at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland. “We will uphold the principles on which the trans-Atlantic partnership is founded, namely sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

“We support talks between Denmark, Greenland (and) the United States on the basis of these principles,” aiming for closer cooperation, Merz said. “It is good news that we are making steps into that right direction. I welcome President Trump’s remarks from last night — this is the right way to go.”

Moulson reported from Berlin. Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.