WASHINGTON — A standoff persists as Democrats continue to push for funding adjustments for the Department of Homeland Security, impacting thousands of federal employees who are anxious about missing another paycheck this Friday.
Senate Republicans have criticized Democrats for jeopardizing what seemed like a promising resolution earlier in the week to end the partial shutdown of DHS, pointing to the Democrats’ latest proposal as the cause.
On Wednesday, Democrats presented a counteroffer that GOP insiders described as adding fresh demands. However, Democrats assert they are simply reinforcing their existing positions to reform Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
This new proposal has complicated negotiations, resulting in another unsuccessful Senate vote to conclude the shutdown, with nearly all Democrats opposing the measure.
“It’s not even close to being real,” commented Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) regarding the Democrats’ latest counteroffer, emphasizing that “it includes things that they know are nonstarters.”
Thune expressed frustration, stating, “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,” adding that this has occurred multiple times, most recently over the weekend.
Before Democrats made their most recent counteroffer, there were rumblings earlier this week of a breakthrough, a tenuous deal for Democrats to essentially agree to fund all DHS except for ICE’s deportation wing — Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).
Republicans would then fund it separately through a process known as budget reconciliation, which isn’t subject to the 60-vote filibuster. President Trump publicly sounded miffed at that proposal, saying Tuesday that “I’m pretty much not happy with it,” but the deal seemed within striking distance nonetheless.
Now, GOP senators are growing increasingly frustrated by Democrats, accusing them of changing their demands. Thune described the Democrats’ asks as “very confused and chaotic and changing by the day.”
A top Democratic aide familiar with negotiations countered that “these are not new asks.”
“The counteroffer includes some of the same basic reforms Democrats have been discussing for months—including several that the White House has already agreed to in principle, such as officer identification, body-worn cameras, protections for sensitive locations from enforcement actions, and basic training standards,” the aide said.
Meanwhile, union reps for overworked Transportation Security Administration employees say they are at a “breaking point” with TSA staff preparing to miss a third paycheck this week, per Federal News Network.
“Most employees live paycheck to paycheck, so they’ve missed these paychecks for the last month and a half, and then before it was a month and a half again, so this is unsustainable,” Johnny Jones, from American Federation of Government Employees, said on a call with reporters.
Politicians have been particularly hung up on two specific demands: banning Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers from wearing masks and imposing tougher warrant requirements on the agency.
Republicans have flatly rejected those two demands, but they have made other key concessions — none of which have moved Democrats.
Already, Democrats have gotten body cameras deployed to ICE officers, former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem fired, the end of Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota, and more.
“Hard to put too fine of a point on this: Democrats are demanding reforms to an agency they’re unwilling to fund,” Thune’s spokesperson Ryan Wrasse chided on X.
“It’s laughable that Democrats are now demanding more reforms to an agency they still refuse to fund,” one White House official told The Post, adding, “This latest stunt from the Democrats proves … they don’t care their shutdown is hurting Americans.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) framed the Democrats’ counteroffer as a “reasonable, good-faith proposal,” while declining to release details.
“Democrats sent Republicans our counteroffer on legislation to reopen DHS, pay TSA workers, while at the same time rein in ICE with commonsense guardrails,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.
The top Senate Democrat noted it “contains some of the very same asks Democrats have been talking about now for months.” He met with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) Wednesday morning before making the offer, with the Brooklyn Democrat insisting that the two are on the same page.
Thune rejected the idea of giving Dems another counterproposal.
“There’s no point in doing that. This is retreading ground that we’ve been treading for weeks,” he vented to reporters when asked.
Amid the collapse of talks in the Senate, Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Tom Suozzi (D-NY) announced plans to negotiate a bipartisan compromise to get most DHS agencies fully funded again.
When asked whether the Democrats’ position was worth having a shutdown over, 31% of respondents agreed that it was, compared to 36% who said it wasn’t, according to a recent CBS-YouGov survey last week of 3,335 adults.
By contrast, when asked whether Republicans’ position was worth having a shutdown over, 23% said it was, compared to 42% who said it wasn’t.
Additionally, a Morning Consult poll found that congressional Republicans are underwater by 18 percentage points, compared to the Democrats’ 13 point in terms of overall “net buzz,” meaning sentiments voters have heard about either party.
Meanwhile, concerns are growing that TSA workers, who last received a full paycheck on Feb. 14 and got a partial one on Feb. 28, are poised to miss their second full paycheck during what has become the second-longest shutdown in US history.
Over 480 airport screeners have quit since the partial shutdown began last month, and call-out rates have surged to double-digits, well above the roughly 2% rate before the funding lapse, the agency’s acting administrator, Ha Nguyen McNeill, told lawmakers Wednesday.
Those staffing pressures have unleashed travel hell on airports across the country, with some wait times exceeding 4.5 hours, the longest in the TSA’s history.
In one infamous case, lines at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport stretched outside due to the funding lapse.
