Senate Republicans gave their “last and final” offer on a compromise to end the Department of Homeland Security shutdown on Thursday, but a test vote showed Democrats were not ready to accept the deal.
The public quietness that ensued afterwards left the Senate in a standstill, with the test vote being held open for hours as talks continued behind the scenes.
Senators were eager to cut a deal so they could pass a measure and leave Washington for a scheduled two-week congressional recess for the Easter and Passover holidays.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican who characterized his party’s offer as “last and final,” said the Senate will break for the recess if lawmakers pass a DHS funding bill, but will stay in Washington if they don’t.
He declined to detail the new offer but said it does not include sweeping changes to immigration enforcement policies that Democrats proposed the day prior, such as requiring agents not to wear masks and to use judicial warrants for entering private property to make arrests.
“There are some language requests that they made that we did everything we could to accommodate,” he said.
Republicans have been adamant that major policy changes were off the table if Democrats refused to fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The GOP’s previous offer was to fund all of DHS except the $5.5 billion budget for ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division that identifies, arrests, detains and deports unauthorized immigrants.
A source familiar with the new offer said it attempts to address Democrats’ concerns that the Trump administration would continue to use funding for ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations division and the Customs and Border Protection agency to conduct immigration enforcement.
Democrats have not publicly responded to the offer but said conversations with Republicans are continuing.
All Democrats but Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman voted Thursday against breaking a filibuster on a motion to proceed to a legislative vehicle for any deal that can be reached.
The test vote, which started before 2 p.m., was still open hours later even though all senators had voted — a sign that negotiations were continuing behind the scenes.
Some Republicans have suggested if a deal does not come together that President Trump should take executive action and declare a national emergency to pay Transportation Security Administration agents. Airport security lines have had record wait times during the shutdown as more than 480 TSA agents have quit, and many others have called out of work.
“The president has the authority, so we’ll see what happens,” Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, Maine Republican, said when asked about the possibility of a national emergency declaration to pay TSA.
Mr. Trump has been cool to the idea of not funding part of ICE, as he does not want Republicans to cut any deal with Democrats after they backtracked from a January agreement on DHS funding, leading to the shutdown that began on Feb.14 after stopgap funding expired.
The president spent Thursday morning suggesting on social media that Senate Republicans should nuke the filibuster to fund DHS without Democrats.
“When is ’enough, enough’ for our Republican Senators,” Mr. Trump said. “There comes a time when you must do what should have been done a long time ago, and something which the Lunatic Democrats will do on day one, if they ever get the chance. TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER, and get our airports, and everything else, moving again. Also, add the complete, all five items, SAVE AMERICA ACT items. Go for the Gold!!!”
Mr. Thune said Mr. Trump called him on Thursday morning to deliver the same message. The senator did not characterize his response but has repeatedly said to similar appeals from the president that there is not enough support among Senate Republicans to scrap the filibuster.
“Let’s let the Dems react to what’s out there, and hopefully we can find a pathway to drive this to the finish line,” Mr. Thune said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said again Thursday that he prefers not to break up the DHS bill, but he understands Mr. Thune is in a tough position because he needs Democratic votes to overcome a filibuster.
“If they break away that subset, I suppose we’d have to fund it through reconciliation and find some other means,” he said of ICE’s enforcement and removal budget. “But it’s a shame that only one party on Capitol Hill is willing to fund all of the security and safety of the American people.”
The House held another vote Thursday on the version of the DHS funding bill that appropriators signed off on in January, but renamed it Pay Our Homeland Defenders Act to drive home the message about needing to pay TSA agents and other DHS employees.
Only four Democrats voted for the bill, same as the last time the House voted on it.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top House Democratic appropriator, said the administration has found funding to pay other DHS workers and is making a deliberate choice not to pay TSA agents and treat them as “expendable.”
“At this moment, 85% of ICE and CBP are being paid; Secret Service, 75%; Coast Guard, 85%; TSA workers, zero,” she said.
