Trump, Dems Raise Doubts About Republican DHS Funding Fix
Good evening and happy National Cheesesteak Day! Senate Republicans are pushing a compromise plan to end the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, but Democrats have responded coolly - as did President Trump. Here's what you should know.
Trump, Dems Raise Doubts About Republican DHS Funding Fix
Senate Republicans emerged from a meeting with President Trump at the White House Monday night hopeful that they had a viable deal to end the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security and the long security lines at some U.S. airports that have frustrated travelers.
Yet even as lawmakers scrambled to finalize the agreement ahead of a planned recess at the end of the week, Trump on Tuesday stopped short of fully endorsing the tentative deal and the Senate's top Democrat signaled that he wants further negotiations to ensure reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "We're going to send a counteroffer and it's going to have some real reforms in it," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said.
Conservative hardliners also pushed back on the plan, casting further doubt as to whether Congress will be able to quickly pull together the votes needed to end the shutdown, now in its 39th day, and resume paying the nation's Transportation and Security Administration workers.
What Republicans are proposing: Republican lawmakers reportedly sent Democrats legislation to fund all of DHS except for about $5.5 billion in funding for the enforcement and removal operations of ICE. Democrats have refused to fund the agency, demanding reforms to its tactics, but the administration's immigration crackdown continues thanks to extra funding provided by Republicans as part of last year's One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
"Under the plan, ICE's Homeland Security Investigations would be funded as well as Customs and Border Protection," the Associated Press reports. "It would include other changes in immigration operations that Democrats and Republicans had already agreed on, including that officers wear body cameras, but few other restraints."
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters that the plan would fund 94% of DHS. He rejected the notion that the deal could include reforms to ICE sought by Democrats if it doesn't also fully fund the agency. "If you are not going to have funding, I don't know how all of a sudden you can demand reforms," Thune told reporters.
Instead of pursuing bipartisan reforms, the GOP would then seek to fund the remaining portion of ICE via a separate, partisan budget reconciliation bill - and add elements of the SAVE America Act, the stalled bill containing Trump's desired election reforms and restrictions on transgender athletes and surgeries, as well as other Republican priorities.
Trump 'not happy' with any deal: At a White House swearing-in ceremony for newly confirmed DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Trump told reporters that he "will take a good hard look" at the potential deal and didn't want to comment until he saw the details. He added that he wants to support Republicans - but that he probably won't like whatever deal they want to cut. "I guess they're getting fairly close," he said. "But I think any deal they make, I'm pretty much not happy with it."
Those comments were the latest in a string of whiplash-inducing positions from Trump and the White House. They came just hours after a White House official reportedly indicated to news outlets that the emerging deal, while still not final, "seems to be an acceptable solution" to the DHS standoff.
That openness to a deal was itself a dramatic shift from the previous two days, when Trump repeatedly insisted that Republicans should pair the Save America Act with any funding for DHS. He had reportedly also rejected a proposal to pursue a reconciliation bill for immigration enforcement funding.
"I don't think we should make any deal with the Crazy, Country Destroying, Radical Left Democrats unless, and until, they Vote with Republicans to pass 'THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,'" Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Sunday night, calling a DHS funding deal "unacceptable" unless it also included his other demands.
GOP hardliners pan the plan: While Republican leaders continue to pursue a deal in the belief that they can line up the necessary votes from both parties, some hardline conservative expressed qualms about the emerging agreement, noting that the Senate's rules - which require reconciliation bills to have direct budgetary consequences and deal with the debt limit, revenues and/or mandatory spending - could invalidate some of the SAVE America Act measures. Republicans would also have to ensure that nearly all of their members supported the party-line bill, given their narrow House and Senate majorities.
"It's hard to imagine how the SAVE America Act could be passed through reconciliation," Utah Sen. Mike Lee wrote in a post on X. "And by 'hard' I mean 'essentially impossible.'"
The ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus also called the reconciliation plan "almost impossible" and derided it as "failure theater" by Senate Republicans. "Leaving the fate of the Save America Act up to the Senate parliamentarian is like going all in on triple-zero at the roulette table...It's not even an option," Rep. Eric Burlison, a member of the group, wrote in a post on X.
The bottom line: Some lawmakers are eager to end the shutdown and the resulting travel disruptions in time for their scheduled two-week holiday recess. This talk of a deal is the most tangible sign of progress in weeks, but it's not clear yet whether the tentative deal will be cemented quickly or fall apart as abruptly as it emerged. Any agreement in the Senate would still need to be passed by the House, where Trump's backing could be a deciding factor. If a deal is reached, it would end the shutdown but may only delay the seemingly inevitable failure of Trump's SAVE America Act.
NASA Plans $30 Billion Moon Base
NASA announced Tuesday that it plans to build a permanent base on the surface of the moon over the next 10 years at a cost of roughly $30 billion.
Work on the Gateway Project, a planned space station that would orbit the moon and provide a launching pad for exploration of Mars and beyond, will be suspended as NASA refocuses its attention on the lunar base.
Jared Isaacman, a tech billionaire who became NASA's administrator late last year, described the new plan - and the "great‑power competition" that shapes it - at the agency's headquarters in Washington to an audience of lawmakers, international space agency officials and aerospace company representatives.
"There will be an evolutionary path to building humanity's first permanent surface outpost beyond Earth," Isaacman said. "America will never again give up the moon. That brings us to the next step: Building the moon base."
Isaacman mentioned China, which plans to land astronauts on the moon by 2030, calling the Asian nation "a real geopolitical rival, challenging American leadership in the high ground of space."
A phased approach: NASA officials say the moon base will be built in three phases. In the first phase, lasting through 2028, the space agency will focus on increasing the tempo of moon missions from Earth, using rovers to determine a building site. In the second phase, through 2031, NASA plans to build "semi‑habitable infrastructure and regular logistics," with contributions from other countries, including Japan. In the third phase, starting in 2032, NASA will build the heavy infrastructure needed for "a continuous human foothold" on the moon, with additional input from allied nations, including Italy and Canada.
Carlos Garcia-Galan, who was previously the deputy director of the Gateway Project and is now the manager of the moon base project, said the first two phases will take roughly seven years and cost $20 billion, per Space News. The third phase will run through at least 2036 and cost an additional $10 billion, bringing the total estimated 10-year cost to $30 billion.
Poll of the Day
With Americans facing soaring fuel prices and an anemic job market, President Trump's approval rating on the economy has fallen to a new low, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Tuesday.
In a four-day poll of 1,272 American adults that closed Monday, just 29% of respondents said they approve of Trump's handling of the economy. That's the lowest mark recorded in either of Trump's administrations or under President Biden.
On the issue of affordability, a scant 25% said they approve of Trump's handling of the cost of living.
Overall, just 36% of respondents said they approve of Trump's job performance, down from 40% a week ago and the lowest level since Trump returned to office.
Fiscal News Roundup
- Senate Democrats Continue Push for ICE Reforms in Emerging DHS Shutdown Deal – CBS News
- DHS Funding Proposal Falls Flat as Democrats, Conservatives and Trump Raise Doubts – Politico
- Airport Disruptions Abound as Senators Chase Deal to End Homeland Security Budget Standoff – Associated Press
- Over 450 TSA Officers Have Quit Since the Partial Shutdown Began – Associated Press
- Markwayne Mullin Sworn-in as DHS Secretary – The Hill
- Pentagon Prepares to Send Another 3,000 Troops to Middle East – Politico
- Global Oil Price Is Back Above $100 a Barrel as Hopes Fade of a Quick End to the War – CNN
- Prosecutor Admits Government Lacks Evidence of Misconduct by Fed Chair – Washington Post
- USDA Cancels $300 Million Program to Help Farmers Buy Land Amid Anti-DEI Push – Politico
- Covid Relief Loans Are Haunting Small Businesses – New York Times
- Chances of a Federal Reserve Rate Cut Fade as Inflation Worsens – Associated Press
- Strength of State Rainy Day Funds Declines as Budgets Tighten – Pew
- NASA Unveils Ambitious New Moon Base Plans – Scientific American
- The MAGA Rebellion Over an $825 Million Plan for an 'Arkansas Alcatraz' – Wall Street Journal
- Trump Casts Florida Mail Ballot as He Pushes Congress to Severely Limit That Voting Option – Associated Press
Views and Analysis
- Change Is 'Long Overdue' at Homeland Security. Can Markwayne Mullin Bring It? – Priscilla Alvarez, CNN
- Is Trump Actually Having 'Very Good' Talks With Tehran? – Vivian Salama and Jonathan Lemire, The Atlantic
- Trump Loses the Home Front – William A. Glaston, Wall Street Journal
- The US Is Recession-Free but Feels Miserable – Jessica Karl, Bloomberg
- Why Trump May Not Be Able to TACO in Iran - Even if He Wants To – Stephen Collinson, CNN
- Trump Sends ICE to Airports Amid TSA Travel Chaos - What Are We Doing? – Lindsey Granger, The Hill
- Nobody Needs Over $100,000 per Year in Social Security Benefits – Washington Post Editorial Board
- The Oil Shock Is Accelerating Asia's EV Revolution – David Fickling, Bloomberg
- The Hack That Turns Trump Accounts Into Multimillion-Dollar Tax-Free Nest Eggs – Ashlea Ebeling, Wall Street Journal