After two months of unyielding negotiations, both parties gave up early Friday on reaching a grand accord to reform and fund the Department of Homeland Security.
Instead, Senate Republicans accepted what Democrats have been offering for weeks — cash for all of DHS except for ICE and part of Customs and Border Protection.
The Senate approved the funding package by a voice vote and is now expected to begin a scheduled two-week recess. The House could vote as soon as Friday, before the shutdown would break the record Saturday night for the longest funding lapse of any federal agency in U.S. history.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune called the outcome “unfortunate” Friday.
“The Dems wanted reforms. We tried to work with them on reforms. They ended up getting no reforms but, you know, we’re going to have to fight some of those battles another day,” he said.
Thune said the House was “aware” of the Senate’s plan but did not know what the other chamber would do. He also said he spoke with President Donald Trump Thursday.
The Senate’s surrender followed Trump’s announcement Thursday night that DHS will start paying TSA agents, who have worked without compensation since the shutdown began almost six weeks ago. Before that move, lawmakers and their staff worried that a nationwide walkout of TSA agents could take place as soon as Friday, according to four people with knowledge of the discussions.
Democratic senators said minutes after Trump’s announcement that there were still bipartisan talks ongoing. But Republicans, increasingly skeptical that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer would ever cut a deal, signaled that they viewed the negotiations as effectively over.
“Time is up,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said.
For Democrats, the solution to the DHS shutdown means no additional constraints on the two agencies left not fully funded since federal agents fatally shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota in January. Democrats refused to approve new spending for those agencies absent major policy changes, including banning DHS agents from wearing masks and requiring judicial warrants for immigration raids.
“Senate Democrats were clear: no blank check for a lawless ICE and Border Patrol,” Schumer said Friday. “Democrats held firm in our opposition that Donald Trump’s rogue and deadly militia should not get more funding without serious reforms.”
The Senate-approved package includes some of the provisions agreed to as part of the January funding negotiations, including $20 million for body cameras for immigration enforcement agents.
Over the last week, Republicans have been talking about pumping more funding to immigration operations without Democratic votes, by harnessing the party-line reconciliation process they used to enact their “big, beautiful” tax-cuts-focused bill last summer. Republicans pitched the strategy after Trump argued they should not take any deal unless it’s linked to the SAVE America Act, an elections bill that doesn’t have a path to passing the Senate.
Doing another party-line bill is facing early doubts from House and Senate Republicans, who are skeptical they will be able to marshal their narrow margins just months before the midterms.
In the meantime, and even if the reconciliation effort falls short, ICE and CBP can operate on what remains of the nearly $140 billion windfall they received under last year’s megabill — far more than the total of $28 billion the two agencies were previously set to receive for the current fiscal year.
Asked about pursuing another reconciliation bill for the immigration enforcement money, Thune said Friday that it is a “good possibility.”
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) warned Democrats on Friday to “be careful what you wish for” and that “the filibuster cannot save you” from what Republicans plan to enact through reconciliation.
“What’s coming next will supercharge deportations,” Schmitt added.
The unexpected resolution came as senators grew increasingly eager to end the shutdown with both congressional chambers scheduled to leave town Friday for a two-week recess.
Senate Republicans said Thursday they had made what they called their “final” offer to Democrats — funding all of DHS except ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations but with additional language meant to assuage Democrats’ concerns. But optimism for an agreement quickly ran aground in the morass of legislative negotiating.
Schumer didn’t mention the spending discussions during his daily speech from the floor Thursday. And Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) said they weren’t presented with the latest GOP offer during Democrats’ closed-door lunch.
Hours later, Trump announced his unilateral move to pay TSA workers, short-circuiting any further talks.
