DHS funding hits another wall

The Senate appeared no closer to solving an impasse over funding the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday after Democrats sent another counteroffer to the White House’s counteroffer.

It mirrored what the party had demanded regarding immigration enforcement reforms nearly three months ago.

“Get serious, folks,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters on Wednesday. “They know better. They’re asking for things that have already been turned down. So it just seems like they’re going in circles. I mean, this is spinning.”

The funding lapse for the Department of Homeland Security is rivaling the record-long 43-day shutdown of last year, and the pressure to pass funding legislation is now threatening the Senate’s Easter and Passover recess. But Senate Republicans face dug-in Democrats and a dug-in President Donald Trump in their efforts to resolve the impasse.

The White House’s counteroffer suggested funding all of DHS except for one division within Immigration and Customs Enforcement: the Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) branch, which handles deportations. Since funding lapsed in February, Democrats have said they will not vote to restore funding until agents from that branch start using judicial warrants to make arrests instead of administrative ones, stop patrolling sensitive locations, and stop wearing masks. The White House offer agreed to most of these provisions, with a caveat that it would reinstate them if an emergency situation demanded.

But Democrats said they didn’t trust the Trump administration to keep its word. Furthermore, they claimed the administration could transfer funding from other departments, like Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and move it over to ERO without congressional approval.

“If you give money to [Customs and Border Protection] or HSI, you’re providing money for immigration enforcement,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. “We’re not funding a lawless immigration enforcement operation. That remains the caucus position.”

Democrats initially agreed to immigration reforms but went back to the drawing board after two protesters were killed in Minneapolis earlier this year. But the funding lapse affects other nonimmigration departments, including FEMA, TSA, the Coast Guard, and cybersecurity agencies. For weeks, Republicans have rebuffed attempts from Democrats to lessen the pressure of the partial government shutdown by funding every portion of DHS except for ICE. Until this week.

“At every juncture, the administration, the White House and Senate Republicans have been at the table, trying to make the deal, and responding to what the Democrats’ latest demands are,” Thune said Wednesday. “I don’t know how you get to a solution where they keep moving the goalposts and where, when you hit a target that they said would be acceptable, they walk away from it. That’s happened multiple times.”

Plan B would be to use a process called reconciliation to pass some DHS funding on a party-line vote. The chamber used reconciliation last year to pass the president’s One Big Beautiful Bill without needing Democratic support. But to use the reconciliation process, the funding for ICE would have to follow very narrow parameters under the Byrd Rule, which requires that bills passed in such a manner focus only on fiscal matters. And it’s up to Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough to determine what meets that standard.

Further complicating the situation, President Trump reaffirmed on Tuesday that he is not happy with any deal that comes before passage of the SAVE America Act, a voting reform bill that would require proof of identity and citizenship to register to vote. On Wednesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., chair of the Senate Budget Committee, promised to work on using reconciliation for both bills.

“The purpose of the second reconciliation bill is to make sure there is adequate funding to secure our homeland and to support our men and women in the military who are fighting so bravely. More funding will mean they can complete the task assigned and keep America safe—which is money well spent,” Graham wrote in a post on X. “President Trump and Leader Thune are right to push for a second reconciliation bill to address the threats we face and keep our elections secure and fair.”

Other Democrats said they found some common ground on DHS funding.

“The devil’s in the details, but I think progress is probably being made,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said on Tuesday. “We all obviously want to get rid of those lines at TSA.”

But Republicans said that Democrats are not operating in good faith. The Democrats’ list of nine counter-demands on Wednesday reiterated many of the same elements the party wanted in January. On Wednesday, Democrats declined to answer questions on what exactly they wanted.

“There are a lot of pieces of paper flying around, and this is not my first rodeo,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., told me. “One thing that is not debatable: My colleagues are very serious. We’re talking about these various approaches. But I’m going to leave it there, I’m not going to negotiate with myself in the corridor.”

Murphy insisted that Democrats have negotiated and suggested compromises on their own positions, but he declined to elaborate on what specifically has changed.

“We’re making a very good faith offer to fund everything else while we continue to work on our disputes on ICE,” he said Wednesday. “We have modified our requests significantly from what we initially talked about.”

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said, “I don’t want to vote to defund ICE, and I don’t want to vote to cut ICE’s funding. So I do want to vote to open TSA.”

Using reconciliation for the SAVE America Act could also spell the bill’s doom, Hawley said, since little of it has to do with fiscal policy: “I learned a lot about the reconciliation process this last time around. The parliamentarian is pretty scrupulous about what gets in there, so I would think it would be challenging.”

Both the House and the Senate are scheduled to recess for two weeks, starting on Friday, for Easter and Passover. During a midterm election year, many members use the time to campaign in their states and districts or to stump for allies. But Thune said he won’t hesitate to keep the Senate in town if DHS remains unfunded. Before that can happen, Trump wants to see the SAVE America Act on his desk. Thune has left the chamber open for extended debate on the voting reforms bill but is prioritizing DHS funding first.

“We’re willing to let [the SAVE America Act] ride for a while,” Thune told me. “But I think the more immediate issue, in order for people to be done by the end of the week, is to get the government funded.”