WASHINGTON — The congressional impasse over funding the Department of Homeland Security is entering its second month after the Senate on Thursday again deadlocked over providing money for the agency, even as airports continued to experience security line backups.
With Democrats refusing to back money for the agency without significant new restrictions on federal immigration officers, legislation providing new funding failed on a vote of 51-46, well short of the 60 votes required to advance the bill. All but one Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, voted no.
The outcome meant that agencies including the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard and a federal cybersecurity office would continue without funding, leaving thousands of employees without paychecks, as they have been since the closure began Feb. 14.
Border control and immigration enforcement agencies are operating with additional funding approved separately by Republicans last year.
“This cannot continue this way,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the chair of the Appropriations Committee. “The stakes are far too high.”
Senate tensions have been mounting over the extended shutdown and the potential political backlash in an election year, and both parties have been maneuvering to try to shift the responsibility — and the blame — to the other.
Over the past two days, Democrats have taken to the Senate floor to propose funding TSA and other branches of the Department of Homeland Security separately, to clear the way for paying federal employees while lawmakers seek negotiations with the White House over limits on the immigration agents.
“Let’s not have TSA officers in the middle of this fight,” Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., said Thursday as she offered a plan to fund that agency. “They don’t deserve it.”
Republicans argued that Democrats’ piecemeal approach was unfair to other workers who would go without pay.
“Let’s fund the whole department,” Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, said. “Let’s get this over with.”
He and other Republicans have proposed that the agency be funded without conditions for two weeks to allow time for stepped-up talks on immigration enforcement tactics. But Democrats have balked at that approach, arguing that the White House has been unwilling to meet key demands for limits on federal officers carrying out President Donald Trump’s deportation drive.
Democrats dug in against the funding for the agency after federal agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis earlier this year during an immigration crackdown that has since been dialed back. After the deaths, Democrats said they would refuse to cooperate in providing funding unless legislation putting new restrictions on federal officers was signed into law, a position they have maintained even as pressure has mounted for them to relent.
Democrats have pushed for an end to masked officers and random roundups of suspected immigrants lacking permanent legal status, in addition to requirements for body cameras and new requirements for warrants issued by a judge for arrests and home entry. But talks with the White House have not resulted in much progress and have been stalled for the past two weeks.
Republicans are hoping that airport disruptions stir at least enough Democrats to break with the party to fund the agency, as happened last year with a broader government shutdown. But so far the party has remained united. Republicans say that the need to get the Department of Homeland Security back at full strength has become particularly acute now, given the military assault on Iran and the possibility of retaliatory terror attacks.
“All warning lights are flashing red,” Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the No. 2 Republican, said Thursday as he berated Democrats for holding up the agency funding.
Following much-criticized appearances before Congress last week, Trump removed Kristi Noem from her post as homeland security secretary, and chose Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., to replace her. A hearing on Mullin’s nomination is set for next Wednesday, creating a situation where he will face a review of his fitness to head an agency that is operating without its annual funding and is at the center of an intense Senate fight.
Republicans accused Democrats of pandering to progressive activists by holding up funding for the agency. But Democrats said polling has found that a significant majority of the public sides with them and wants more controls on immigration officers. They have expressed confidence in their position, even though parties deemed responsible for government shutdowns have paid a political price in the past.
“You have lost this argument,” Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Conn., told Republicans on the Senate floor. “The public does not want ICE to continue operating the way they have been operating.”
