confirmed on Sunday<\/a> that Pretti was a nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center.<\/p>\n\u201cAs President Trump has said, nobody wants to see chaos and death in American cities, and we send our condolences to the Pretti family. Such tragedies are unfortunately happening in Minnesota because of state and local officials\u2019 refusal to cooperate with the federal government to enforce the law and deport dangerous illegal criminals,\u201d Collins wrote.<\/p>\n
VA employees expressed outrage over Pretti\u2019s death. Coworkers remembered him as someone who cared for his patients.<\/p>\n
An internal document obtained by Federal News Network shows that Pretti recently received a \u201cVA gratitude\u201d email message from his supervisors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks for staying on your day off and helping out taking care of the veterans,\u201d the email to Pretti states. \u201cYou are an invaluable member of the team!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAlex Pretti was a great nurse and researcher,\u201d a VA employee told Federal News Network on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Doug Massey, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 17, which represents VA Central Office employees, said members are \u201cgenerally upset and very concerned following\u201d the shooting. Massey said it was a \u201csenseless\u201d shooting, and that Pretti was\u00a0trying to assist a protester on the ground moments before the shooting.<\/p>\n
]]><\/p>\n
\u201cI know a lot of nurses, and they tend to be that type where they like to help people. He saw the woman getting pushed down,\u201d Massey said.<\/p>\n
Daniel Amyx, a rehab and extended care nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, said he spoke with some of Pretti\u2019s ICU coworkers following the shooting, and that they described him as \u201cvery kind and gentle,\u201d and a \u201cgreat guy to work with.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAlex was a dedicated nurse. He was science-minded, evidenced by the fact that he moved from research into becoming a nurse, and I heard that he very much cared for his patients,\u201d Amyx said in a virtual meeting hosted by the Federal Unionists Network on Sunday. Amyx said the Minneapolis VAMC is planning a memorial service for Pretti.<\/p>\n
Sharda Fornnarino, a VA registered nurse in Colorado and secretary of the VA division for National Nurses United, called Pretti\u2019s death a \u201cblatant attack on federal workers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cVA workers, we\u2019re shocked, stunned and now we\u2019re getting angry,\u201d Fornnarino said.<\/p>\n
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called the shooting a \u201ctragedy,\u201d during a briefing with reporters on Monday, but said it \u201coccurred as a result of a deliberate and hostile resistance by Democrat leaders in Minnesota.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis incident remains under investigation and nobody here at the White House, including the president of the United States, wants to see Americans hurt or killed and losing their lives in American streets,\u201d Leavitt said<\/p>\n
Matthew Silverman, national president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, said in a statement that \u201crespect for lawful authority and adherence to the rule of law are essential to preventing further tragedies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn an era of rising threats against law enforcement, it is critical that officers are supported, not second-guessed in real time, as they carry out their duties under extraordinary pressure,\u201d Silverman said.<\/p>\n
]]><\/p>\n
Before the shooting, a comprehensive spending deal for the rest of fiscal 2026 was slated for a full Senate vote. But following Pretti\u2019s death, Senate Democrats are calling on the Senate to pull DHS funding from the six-bill package.<\/p>\n
This package currently includes the full-year funding bills for DHS and the departments of Defense, Treasury, Labor, Health and Human Services, State, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, as well as several other agencies. The House of Representatives approved these six bills last week.<\/p>\n
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), ranking member of the Senate Appropriation Committee\u2019s subcommittee on commerce, justice, science and related agencies, called on the Senate to pull the DHS funding bill from the final package of spending bills for the rest of fiscal 2026.<\/p>\n
Van Hollen told Federal Drive with Terry Gerton on Monday that this would allow lawmakers to \u201cdive in and make necessary changes to the Department of Homeland Security budget.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no reason that Republicans should hold all of those bills hostage as we work to rein in and dramatically reform the parts of DHS that need to be dramatically reined in. That will be the question \u2014 whether or not Republicans in the Senate are willing to do that,\u201d Van Hollen said.<\/p>\n
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Monday that Senate Democrats plan to advance five of the spending bills, separately from the DHS funding bill, before the Jan. 30 deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe responsibility to prevent a partial government shutdown is on Leader Thune and Senate Republicans,\u201d Schumer said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins (R-Maine) urged her colleagues on Monday to vote for the full six-bill package that includes DHS funding, to \u201cshow that we can work together in a bipartisan manner to finish the job.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is so important that we do so, because looming is a government shutdown \u2014 another harmful, unnecessary and disastrous government shutdown if we do not complete our work,\u201d Collins said on the Senate floor.<\/p>\n
Collins said more than 80% of the DHS spending bill covers non-immigration and non-border security functions \u2014 such as cybersecurity and funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Transportation Security Administration.<\/p>\n
If you would like to contact this reporter about recent changes in the federal government, please email\u00a0<\/strong>jheckman@federalnewsnetwork.com<\/strong><\/a>, or reach out on Signal at jheckman.29<\/strong><\/p>\nCopyright
\n \u00a9\u00a02026 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Senators are divided on how to proceed with a spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security, after…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":545942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[238640,79344,28425,14964,2398,37058,15995,240149,240150,51,8133,101328,50,16537,52,229217],"class_list":{"0":"post-545941","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-alex-pretti","9":"tag-american-federation-of-government-employees","10":"tag-chris-van-hollen","11":"tag-chuck-schumer","12":"tag-department-of-homeland-security","13":"tag-department-of-veterans-affairs","14":"tag-doug-collins","15":"tag-doug-massey","16":"tag-federal-law-enforcement-officers-association","17":"tag-headlines","18":"tag-karoline-leavitt","19":"tag-national-nurses-united","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-susan-collins","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-veterans-health"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115964991137812702","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}