Senate Minority Leader John Thune told his Republican colleagues over the weekend that he would only bring the Senate back from a two-week recess if there was an agreement with Democrats to realistically pass something.
House and Senate Republicans are out of sync, and DHS funding will not reach them.
With House and Senate Republicans operating on different wavelengths, there is no end in sight for the Department of Homeland Security shutdown.
WASHINGTON – After nearly seven weeks, the political impasse over funding for the Department of Homeland Security doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon.
Congress is in a scheduled two-week recess. Opinions among Republicans in the House and Senate are sharply divided. Democrats don’t want to negotiate until Republicans are on the same page.
And while many are praising President Donald Trump for directing federal funds to pay Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers who are currently receiving checks amid the impasse, the directive also eases perhaps the most critical pressure point in resolving the crisis once and for all, as it continues to cripple the functioning of a critical federal agency.
“We’re in a conflict with Iran right now,” Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on March 29. “We need cybersecurity experts on their desks, and they’re not being funded right now.”
Congressional aides say attempts to negotiate continue after lawmakers left town for spring break, but the political dynamics surrounding the partial shutdown are only getting more out of hand.
White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt warned on March 30 that even if TSA employees get their pay back, airports may not fully return to normal. She called on Congress to return to Washington immediately to end the crisis for good.
“We’re not going to truly get back to normal unless Democrats do the right thing by fully funding this agency,” she said.
sleepy senator
On Friday, March 27, the House passed an interim measure that fully funds the Department of Homeland Security through May 22.
The bill was a dramatic rebuke to the agreement reached between Senate Republicans and Democrats the day before, which passed overnight a bill that would fund all of DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol (both units are already operating on an influx of cash).
House Republicans dramatically split with their senators, deriding the deal as a “joke” and “a Swiss cheese funding bill full of holes.” They called on the Senate to reconvene immediately and consider a counterproposal instead.
However, the Senate is scheduled to remain in session for the Easter and Passover holidays until Monday, April 13. There are no concrete plans to return sooner than that. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) told Republican senators over the weekend that he intended to call them again just to consider a DHS funding bill that had a realistic chance of passing (as opposed to a test or show vote), according to a senior Republican aide.
Senate Republicans broadly support the House-passed bill, which would require the participation of at least some Democrats to survive the House’s 60-vote threshold. But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said it would be “dead on arrival.”
During a brief “black and white” session on Monday, March 30, Republican senators could have tried to pass the House DHS bill unanimously (though Democrats would have blocked it). No one even tried.
Zachary Schermele is a Congressional reporter for USA TODAY. You can email us at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and on Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social..
