Senate unable to prevent DHS funding shutdown crisis before deadline

With little time and no deal in sight to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a partial government shutdown by midnight is all but guaranteed.

The battle to prevent the third government shutdown under President Donald Trump in less than six months was lost in the Senate on Thursday. Now, with Congress scattered across the U.S. and several senators headed abroad, there’s no chance that a shutdown will be averted.

Senate Republicans were unable to smash through Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Democrats’ unified front to pass a full-year DHS funding bill, nor were they able to do yet another short-term, two-week extension.

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“The idea of not even allowing us to have an extended amount of time to negotiate this suggests to me, at least, that there isn’t a high level of interest in actually solving this issue,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said.

The final fight on the floor Thursday wasn’t with every lawmaker present, but between Sens. Katie Britt, R-Ala., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., over giving lawmakers a little more time to keep the agency open while negotiations continue.

Senate Democrats argued that Republicans offered their legislative proposal in the dead of night, giving little time to actually move toward a compromise.

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“We had plenty of time to get a deal in the last two weeks,” Murphy said. “And the lack of seriousness from the White House and from Republicans not getting language until last night has put us in the position we are in today.”

And with the expected shutdown, Democrats’ main targets — Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) — won’t see their cash flow dry up because of billions injected into the agency by Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”

Instead, agencies like TSA, FEMA, the Coast Guard, and several others will suffer the brunt of the shutdown.

“There is no way that you can’t say we’re working in good faith. We want to continue this conversation,” Britt said on the Senate floor. “But yet you’re penalizing a TSA agent. A TSA agent is going to go without a paycheck. Why? So that you can posture politically? I’m over it.”

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“Everybody on that side of the aisle knows that ICE and CBP will continue to be funded,” she continued. “They’re going to continue to enforce the law just as they should. Who’s going to pay the price?”

The final floor argument was a microcosm of what the week had devolved into. Senate Republicans argued that Democrats had burned too much time producing their list of demands, while Senate Democrats contended that they weren’t given enough time by the White House.

And as is typical during the string of shutdowns in the last several months, it has devolved into a public blame game. When asked about the effects a shutdown would have on the agencies not involved in immigration enforcement, Schumer pointed the finger at the GOP and the White House.

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“Talk to the Republicans, OK? We’re ready to fund everything,” Schumer said. “We’re ready to have good, serious proposals supported by the American people. They’re not; they’re sort of dug in the ground, and they’re not moving forward.”

But neither side is willing to divulge publicly what the exact sticking points are in their ongoing negotiations. And Senate Democrats now appear to be considering a counteroffer to the White House, a sign that negotiations aren’t totally dead in the water.

“Negotiations will continue, and we will see in the course of the next few days how serious they are,” Thune said.