Funding is set to lapse tonight for the Department of Homeland Security, marking the third time in five months that at least parts of the federal government are shut down. The fight over immigration enforcement reforms is likely to go on for a while because negotiators remain far apart, the rest of the government is already funded, and the immediate impact of a DHS shutdown is expected to be limited so political pressure to strike a deal is low — oh, and Congress is scheduled to be out for 10 days.
“This ‘nyah nyah’ is going to go on for a while,” Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana predicted Thursday about the looming DHS shutdown.
Normally, lawmakers facing a shutdown deadline would be scrambling to take last-minute votes or hustling to make their case to TV cameras. Not this time. Both the House and Senate cleared out on Thursday, an acknowledgment that any deal mandating reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement remains far away — and that lawmakers have other priorities for the coming few days.
“We are not even going to pretend that we are trying to figure it out,” said Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who was reportedly heading to the Munich Security Conference in Germany along with other lawmakers. “It doesn’t look great.”
Kennedy, as quoted by Politico, suggested that even if a deal is reached quickly by the White House and Democratic leaders, it’s not clear that party members would vote for it. “I can’t see the Dems voting for anything because they’re not going to get pounded for funding ICE,” Kennedy said. “And the Republicans on my side are not going to get pounded for hurting ICE.”
Democrats are expected to send the White House a counteroffer on immigration enforcement reforms this weekend after they rejected a confidential administration proposal made earlier this week as wholly insufficient.