House Republicans will move forward with an alternate plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security, rejecting a deal that was passed by the Senate overnight to fulfill most of the agency’s budget except for immigration enforcement.
Republicans in the conservative flank of the party balked at the spending package on Friday, vowing to vote against it if GOP leadership brought it to the floor — forcing House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to craft a new plan that could muster enough support. The new spending plan would extend full DHS spending including ICE for 60 days, buying time for extended negotiations on immigration reform, according to lawmakers briefed on the plans.
It’s not clear how quickly the package could be passed, or if it has enough support. The bill would likely not get any Democratic votes in the House, and it would require the Senate to return from its two-week recess early — which is also unlikely.
However, Republican leaders could schedule the vote on the spending proposal as soon as Saturday.
Meanwhile, House Democrats are pushing to pass the Senate deal — which funds all of DHS except for ICE and portions of border control — as it is.
“The only thing standing between ending this chaos or not are House Republicans, there’s a bipartisan bill that emerged from the Senate with uniform support, and it should be brought to the floor immediately,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters on Friday.
Democrats met behind closed doors on Friday morning and emerged sounding optimistic about passing the Senate deal if it’s brought to the floor by Republican leadership.
How we got here
The Senate passed a deal to reopen most of the Department of Homeland Security, allocating cash to almost all of the agency except ICE and parts of Customs and Border Patrol.
The Senate approved the deal in a voice vote around 2:30 a.m. on Friday, bringing to an end six weeks of tense negotiations to fund the agency. The deal was cobbled together in the hours leading up to the vote, and it leaves both parties without a major win.
For Republicans, it leaves a hole in DHS funding when it comes to immigration enforcement. But for Democrats, they didn’t secure the sweeping reforms they wanted to rein in how immigration officers operate.
“The Dems wanted reforms. We tried to work with them on reforms. They ended up getting no reforms,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said early Friday. “But, you know, we’re going to have to fight some of those battles another day.”
The deal came after weeks of negotiations between Republicans and Democrats on how to fund the agency while also implementing guardrails for immigration officers after the deaths of two protesters in Minneapolis.
Those talks reached a boiling point this week when Republicans gave what they called a “final offer” to fund 95% of the DHS budget and fulfill some of Democrats’ demands on reforms — a proposal Democrats ultimately rejected, arguing it didn’t go far enough.
Although the current spending deal leaves a hole for immigration spending, Republicans plan to allocate more funding down the road through a partisan reconciliation bill that wouldn’t require Democratic approval.
The deal now heads to the House where it could face an uphill battle. Conservative Republicans are likely to be frustrated that the deal strips out funding for immigration enforcement, forcing Speaker Johnson to either convince them or attempt to pass the bill with Democratic support.
Meanwhile, the Senate has left town for a two-week recess, so any changes made by the House to the underlying bill could prolong the shutdown.