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Senate Democrats again blocked Republicans’ attempt to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as background negotiations appear to have fizzled out.
It came just minutes after Kristi Noem, the former South Dakota congresswoman and governor who led President Donald Trump’s DHS in his second term, was ousted from her position on Wednesday.
The agency has been shuttered for nearly three weeks, and Democrats’ latest rejection of a full-year funding bill likely ensures that the closure extends into a fourth week.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus remained dug in on their position that unless the White House caters to their list of reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), they wouldn’t play ball.
“It’s very easy for them to get all of this funded — simply agree to our common-sense proposals on ICE and Border Patrol,” Schumer said before the vote. “These are proposals. What we’ve asked for is what every police force does in terms of our negotiations. Look, we’re still far apart, but we’re still negotiating and exchanging paper back and forth.”
The vote came moments after Trump announced he would nominate Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., to replace Noem as the new DHS chief, following reports that Trump was “furious” with her performance in bicameral Judiciary Committee hearings this week.
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Meanwhile, Trump’s Operation Epic Fury has taken center stage in the upper chamber, with a Democratic push to rein in his war authorities in the Middle East hitting a red wall of Republican resistance on Wednesday.
And as the strikes continue, it has spurred calls from Senate Republicans to fund the agency as concerns over retaliation on American soil increase.
“Look, I’m not going to vote to fund Ice and let them detain, brutalize, shoot, or kill more American citizens just because Donald Trump started an unconstitutional war that no one asked for,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said.
The House is expected to vote on a slightly modified version of the DHS funding bill later in the day, which is expected to pass in the lower chamber. Even if it does, given the current political standoff, it would likely go nowhere in the Senate.
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The last offer made public by either side came last Friday, when the White House sent congressional Democrats what officials called a “serious” counter-proposal. While it appeared that progress was being made after a week of silence, Schumer and Democrats still weren’t satisfied.
A frustrated Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., noted that Democrats had “rebuffed” Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., whom he anointed to run point for the GOP in negotiations, after repeated attempts to reach out to their counterparts.
He also charged that it appeared the decision to ignore Britt and Republicans was coming from Schumer.
“I would say, beyond not engaging, they are just flat rejecting any chance to sit down and actually talk about it,” Thune said. “And that seems to be coming from the top.”
“I think they see this as politically advantageous to them, but this is a posture they’ve adopted which has become increasingly clear — it is just a flat-out unwillingness to try and solve this problem or fund the department,” he continued. “At some point, something bad is going to happen.”
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