WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans are moving this week to try and reopen the Department of Homeland Security and end the longest partial government shutdown in history.
The first votes could come as soon as Tuesday as GOP leaders attempt a new workaround to unlock the funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. Democrats have blocked money for those agencies since mid-February, demanding policy changes after the fatal shootings
of two protesters by federal agents.
Republicans’ workaround is through so-called budget reconciliation, a complicated, time-consuming maneuver that they also used to pass President Donald Trump’s package of tax and spending cuts last year. The budget process only requires a simple majority in the Senate, bypassing filibuster rules that require Republicans to find 60 votes on most bills when they only hold 53 seats.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the budget maneuver a “partisan sideshow” and said the resolution will pour money into immigration enforcement “without putting any restraints on these rogue agencies’ rampant violence in our streets.”
But with months of negotiations stalled and temporary stopgap funding nearly exhausted, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said that Republicans “have run out of time to play the Democrats’ games.”
The Senate Budget Committee on Tuesday released the estimated $70 billion resolution to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years, through the rest of Trump’s term. Thune and other GOP leaders say they hope to keep the bill narrowly focused as they aim to pass it by May 1.
But that could prove difficult as many in the party see it as the last real chance this year to enact their priorities. Republicans in both the Senate and House have pushed to add other items, including money for farmers and Trump’s proof of citizenship voting bill, called the SAVE America Act.
Republican leaders say they would do a second partisan budget reconciliation bill to deal with some of those issues. But many in the conference are skeptical, especially with thin GOP margins in both chambers of Congress and an election approaching.
Senators who have been pushing for more to be included in the original resolution say they are preparing amendments to try and add them on the Senate floor. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said he’ll try to add parts of the SAVE America Act and proposals related to the economy.
“A lot of Americans are very worried about the cost of living and we need to address it,” Kennedy said Monday.
Republicans were meeting on Tuesday to discuss next steps. Thune has said he hopes for final passage this week after a long series of votes that is part of the reconciliation process.
Democrats say any funding bill should place restraints on federal immigration authorities, including better identification for federal officers and more use of judicial warrants, among other acts.
“After the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, people across the country demanded ICE be reined in — but instead of working with Democrats to enact real reform, Republicans rejected the most basic accountability measures, and now they’re rushing to give ICE billions of dollars more,” said Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
After federal agents shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January, Trump agreed to a Democratic request that the Homeland Security bill be separated from a larger spending measure that became law. But the DHS funding lapsed with no agreement on changes to his administration’s immigration enforcement tactics.
In March, the Senate passed legislation by voice vote that would separate out ICE and Customs and Border Protection and fund the rest of the department, including the Transportation Security Administration as security lines grew long at some airports. But Republicans in the House refused to vote for it, saying they wouldn’t support any bill that didn’t include money for immigration enforcement.
Congress then left town for a two-week recess, leaving the issue unresolved. Trump has used executive orders to pay some department salaries in the meantime, but some of those will soon run out.
During the recess, Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that they would pursue a two-track approach — pass the Senate bill that includes most of the department’s funding through regular order and use the party-line bill to pass ICE and CBP funding. Johnson has said the House will move on the rest of the funding once the Senate has made progress on the budget resolution.
Republicans say they hope to move as fast as possible.
“Republicans are doing something that must be done quickly, and that our Democrat colleagues are trying to prevent us from doing,” said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. “Fully fund Border Patrol and ICE at a time of great threat to the United States.”
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Associated Press writer Steven Sloan contributed to this report.
