Deal to fund DHS falters amid bipartisan pushback
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Senate Majority Leader John Thune takes questions during a press conference Saturday on Capitol Hill. Photo: Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images
Momentum toward reopening DHS evaporated Tuesday as Democrats drew a hard line on reforms to ICE, swiftly rejecting a proposal that GOP senators had only just persuaded President Trump to entertain.
Why it matters: The Department of Homeland Security has been shut down for more than five weeks — and the resistance from Democrats, paired with skepticism among some Republicans, including Trump, casts serious doubt on whether Congress can strike a deal this week.
- GOP senators had just persuaded Trump to back off his demands that the SAVE America Act be included in a DHS funding package, arguing that a narrower deal could pass the Senate.
But Democrats immediately shot down the latest proposal — and some Republicans framed it as a capitulation to Democrats.
- "Until we get the reforms that we want in ICE, we don't want to vote for ICE funding, knowing they already pre-funded it," Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) told reporters, referencing the $75 billion ICE received in last year's "big, beautiful bill."
- "I don't want to vote to defund ICE, and I don't want to vote to cut ICE's funding.… I would hope that we would not, as Republicans, be defunding ICE," Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said.
Driving the news: Republicans sent Democrats a proposal Tuesday that would fund all of DHS except parts of ICE's enforcement operations.
- GOP leaders would then work to include additional funding for ICE in reconciliation 2.0.
- Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) made clear that Democrats aren't budging without reforms to ICE — and that they plan on sending a counterproposal.
- "Every one of my colleagues, every one, A: believes we should be unified, and, B: we need reforms of ICE — every single one."
The other side: "A lot of the reforms are contingent on funding for ICE," Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said Tuesday afternoon.
- "If you're not going to have funding, I don't know how all of a sudden now you can demand reforms."
Zoom out: Doubts about the proposal are coming from all sides: Conservative Republicans are uneasy with carving out ICE funding, and unconvinced that promises of future action through reconciliation will materialize.
- "I can't imagine why we're doing something where everybody in federal government is not getting paid while senators get paid," Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) told Axios.
- And President Trump offered only lukewarm support: "We're going to take a good, hard look at it.… But I think any deal they make, I'm pretty much not happy with it."
At the same time, promises to include the SAVE America Act in that same reconciliation bill have been met with deep skepticism and outrage from conservatives, who say it won't survive the Senate's Byrd bath.
- "This is gaslighting," the House Freedom Caucus posted on X Tuesday.
What they're saying: "There is nowhere to go," Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) told Axios of future negotiations, adding that Democrats keep moving the goalpost. "They proposed this, and we said OK."
- "Our guys can't agree to something and then have the Democrats back up and say 'Oh, well, now we want more things,'" Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) said.
Senate Democrats raised concerns that even partial ICE funding could enable the agency to shift money internally and expand enforcement without reforms.
The intrigue: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said a deal to fund all of DHS but ICE would likely get "strong Democratic support" in his chamber.
- That's not going to make resisting a deal in the Senate any easier for Schumer.
