Senators are scrambling — albeit with seemingly limited urgency — to end the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security ahead of a planned two-week recess scheduled to start on Friday. But the brief glimmer of hope from earlier this week that a deal might be imminent has faded as Democrats and Republicans dismiss each other’s offers.
The latest such rejection came Wednesday afternoon, as Senate Majority Leader John Thune quickly nixed a counterproposal sent by Democrats, who are insisting that reforms to ICE must be part of any agreement. As the talks drag on, President Trump on Wednesday blasted Democrats and said he may call up the National Guard for more help at airports where long security lines have frustrated travelers.
Both sides balk: Senate Republicans had proposed a deal earlier this week to fund all of DHS except for about $5.5 billion in money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s enforcement and removal operations. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democrats rejected that deal. Democrats sent their counteroffer on Wednesday.
“Our offer is a reasonable, good faith proposal that contains some of the very same asks Democrats have been talking about now for months,” Schumer said. “These are not new demands. These are not surprise demands. They are not things we came up with yesterday. They are common-sense reforms, reasonable reforms, reforms that police departments across America follow every day.”
Schumer didn’t detail what reforms Democrats had included, but The New York Times reports that it included some concessions that a bipartisan group of senators had discussed with the White House last week and two demands that the White House and some Republicans have resisted: prohibiting immigration agents from wearing masks and requiring that they seek judicial warrants for searches of private property.
Thune wasted little time in rebuffing the Democrats’ offer.
“It’s not even close to being real,” he said. “They know better. They’re asking for things that have already been turned down. So it just seems like they’re going in circles, spinning, spinning.”
In a speech on the Senate floor, Thune said the Republican offer reflected what Democrats said they wanted all along: to fund all of DHS but the ICE enforcement and removal operations.
He brought up the Republican plan for a vote, but it failed 54-46, falling short of the 60 votes needed. Senators then rejected a series of dueling unanimous consent requests on various proposals related to ending the shutdown.
Will jet fumes help? Forty days into the shutdown, Democrats and Republicans have made little progress toward a deal as they continue to go back and forth. Republicans claim that Democrats are moving the goalposts, while Democrats say their position hasn’t changed and that Republicans omitted reforms, like the requirement for judicial warrants, that had already gotten some bipartisan support. Thune said it was unrealistic for Democrats to demand those reforms if they aren’t agreeing to fund ICE.
Thune also hinted to reporters that senators’ desire to head home for their recess could yet help spur action. “You know how it is around here — it’s not Thursday yet,” he said.
Quote of the Day
“Many in our workforce have missed bill payments, received eviction notices, had their cars repossessed and utilities shut off, lost their childcare, defaulted on loans, damaged their credit line and drained their retirement savings. Some are sleeping in their cars, selling their blood and plasma, and taking on second jobs to make ends meet, all while being expected to perform at the highest level when in uniform to protect the traveling public.”
– Ha Nguyen McNeill, the acting chief of the Transportation Security Administration, at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on the effects of the ongoing partial government shutdown.
McNeill told lawmakers that TSA has been shut down for 85 days so far this fiscal year, or about half of the year, and if the agency remains shut down on Friday, its workers will have missed out on nearly $1 billion in pay. McNeill said that TSA has already lost more than 480 workers during this shutdown, as employees quit to find other work.
TSA said that more than 3,100 staffers — over 11% of workers — didn’t show up for work on Tuesday, and McNeill warned that some smaller airports may be forced to close if they do not have enough security officers. “This level of disruption is unprecedented and unacceptable and significantly undermines the security of U.S. transportation systems,” McNeill said.