The White House made a new Homeland Security funding proposal to congressional Democrats late Thursday as a partial shutdown of the sprawling department enters its third week.
The two sides have struggled to make progress since the funding lapse began Feb. 14, with the Senate failing Monday to advance legislation that would restore the flow of cash to agencies dealing with matters ranging from immigration enforcement to airport security to cyber infrastructure.
“Democrats need to make a move to end the shutdown before more Americans are harmed by a lack of funding for critical services like disaster relief,” a White House official said, describing the latest proposal as a “serious counter offer.”
Two other people granted anonymity to discuss the private negotiations confirmed that the White House sent its latest offer Thursday. No congressional action is expected until the middle of next week at the earliest, with the Senate out of town until Monday and the House not voting until Wednesday.
The White House official’s warning about disaster relief comes after President Donald Trump pointed to a recent snowstorm that clobbered parts of the Northeast in urging Democrats to end the partial shutdown during his State of the Union speech. FEMA officials said earlier this month that the main federal disaster fund “has sufficient balances to continue emergency response activities for the foreseeable future,” but expected new disbursements could drain it quickly.
Democrats have vowed to block DHS funding until they get changes to Trump’s immigration enforcement tactics after federal agents killed two people in January in Minneapolis. Enforcement agencies like ICE and Border Patrol, however, have been largely unaffected by the shutdown due to funding put in place last year by the party-line GOP megabill.
Democrats haven’t yet weighed in on the latest White House offer. But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said this week that Republicans have not meaningfully changed their position as talks have continued.
“They’re just trying to pass paper back and forth with no real changes,” Schumer told reporters.
