Democrats rejected a counter-proposal from the White House on Thursday and voted down legislation in the Senate that would fund the Department of Homeland Security for the remainder of the year.
As a result, Washington is now imminently facing another partial government shutdown.
The newest one will begin early Saturday morning as Congress and the White House collectively failed to make an agreement around the conduct of ICE officers and scope of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement program. Democrats presented Republicans with 10 proposed reforms for ICE and DHS earlier this month, but Republicans in Congress never presented a counter-offer and the White House refused to do so publicly.
NBC News reported that an administration official Thursday claimed that the White House had indeed presented Democrats with a counter-offer but had been rebuffed for not meeting their adversaries’ demands.
“The administration is not going to accept concessions that meaningfully affect its ability to carry out its immigration enforcement agenda,” a White House official said, according to NBC.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, meanwhile, pinned the blame on the White House for being unwilling to accept any tangible restrictions on the scope of the president’s mass deportation agenda.
”What we're waiting for is again, the White House to get serious and the Republicans to get serious,” said the Senate Democratic leader. “For whatever reason, they are stuck in a position that is not serious is not will not end the violence and will not rein in ICE.”
Just one Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, voted for cloture on DHS funding Thursday. Republicans would need five others to break ranks and side with the GOP to break a filibuster.
The House and Senate split DHS funding from the broader yearly appropriations package in January, averting a broader government shutdown but making opposition to the DHS bill a more politically convenient prospect for Democrats in the same act. Now, DHS will be the only agency affected if funding runs out Saturday morning.
The impact will be different for various parts of the agency, but experts agree that Americans could start to notice effects of a shutdown within weeks. The main point of contact most Americans have with DHS is through the Transportation Security Administration, TSA, which provides security and screenings at all major airports and other transportation hubs. Politico reports that TSA agents could start seeing paychecks dry up as soon as mid-March if funding isn’t restored. That could quickly mean huge delays in airports if the inevitable staffing shortages begin as a result of missed paychecks.
Most other parts of DHS would not be affected immediately, and critical functions like the Secret Service would go uninterrupted. But a long-term lapse in funding could have further impacts down the line, including if the federal disaster relief agency FEMA is faced with major calls for response later this year.
Among the reforms Democrats are calling for: An end to ICE agents masking themselves and operating roving patrols, and the procurement of a judicial warrant before searches are carried out.
Democrats held out for Republican votes on legislation to extend federal health care subsidies during a shutdown last year, but were unsuccessful. That shutdown, which affected the entire government, lasted the longest of any funding lapse in history before a group of Democrats broke ranks to end it without having their demands met by Republicans.
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