Last week, it looked like the monthlong shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was set to end after the Senate passed a spending bill that funded every agency within the department except ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
House Republicans rejected that bill and instead passed one that fully funds DHS, which everyone knew would be a non-starter for Senate Democrats. While House and Senate Republicans announced on Wednesday that they had reached an agreement to pass legislation that would reopen DHS, the House made no effort to pass the bill on Thursday.
According to the New York Times, the agreement was supposed to see the House bring the shutdown to a swift end on Thursday, but House Speaker Mike Johnson didn’t bring the proposal to a vote during a brief, ceremonial session on Thursday morning. The House isn’t scheduled to reconvene until mid-April, making it unclear when they will move to end the shutdown.
“I don’t know the particulars around what the House will do with it, but my assumption is at some point, hopefully, they will move it,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and the majority told reporters on Thursday.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) was quick to place ownership of the shutdown on House Republicans for refusing to pass the bill. “The deep division and dysfunction among House Republicans is needlessly extending the D.H.S. shutdown and hurting federal workers who are missing another paycheck,” Schumer told reporters. “The Senate did its work twice to fund key parts of D.H.S. without funding the lawlessness of ICE and Border Patrol.”
What makes this whole situation exceptionally stupid is that Senate Democrats pitched this legislation two weeks into the shutdown, but Senate Republicans didn’t go for it. Now, after a month, it’s House Republicans refusing to compromise, despite President Donald Trump signaling on Wednesday that he approved the spending bill.
ICE and CBP already have billions in guaranteed funding due to the Big, Beautiful Bill, making the lack of further funding more of a symbolic victory than anything else.
While the legislation could potentially end the DHS shutdown, neither Republicans nor Democrats are getting what they wanted. Senate Republicans wanted a spending bill that entirely funds DHS. Senate Democrats refused to pass a spending bill unless it included significant reforms for how ICE operates.
The shutdown began only weeks after Alex Pretti and Renee Good were fatally shot by federal agents during ICE and CBP’s Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis. Senate Democrats pushed for ICE agents to no longer wear masks, to not conduct operations near schools and hospitals, and for ICE to use judicial warrants to enter people’s homes and workplaces.
Truly radical left policies. In fact, they’re so radical that nearly every other law enforcement agency already follows them.
The ongoing DHS shutdown has been felt most at the nation’s busiest airports. As a result of going weeks without pay, a large number of TSA agents called out or even quit. This led to lines at TSA security checkpoints at several airports that stretched for hours throughout March. While an executive order signed by Trump led to TSA agents receiving back pay and returning to work, it’s still unclear when they’ll receive pay for the work they’re currently doing.
I simply find it maddening that Republicans are causing all this strife for an agency that the majority of Americans have soured on. With the midterms looking to be particularly brutal for Republicans, you’d think that reaching a bipartisan agreement on ICE reforms would just be common sense.
For a party that claims to love winning, they sure move like a bunch of losers.
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