Behind the scenes of the eleventh-hour congressional rush to fund the DHS

What would you say if one body of Congress took no formal roll call vote on an important bill and passed it at 2:19 Friday morning?

Would you try to outdo your colleagues in the Capitol Rotunda with your own congressional shenanigans? Perhaps by passing an equally important version of the same bill — formally avoiding a direct up/down vote on the measure — at 11:28 p.m. that same Friday night.

That’s what happened late last week. The Senate received approval from all 100 senators to pass a bill that would fund most of the Department of Homeland Security for the remainder of the fiscal year; but he did so by voice vote at 2:19 a.m. Friday morning, with only five senators in the chamber.

House Republicans mocked it. So, just before the witching hour on Friday, they passed their own bill to fund the entire DHS. But technically, the House did not even vote directly on the legislation. The House voted to approve a “rule” (which governs debate for the bills). By adopting this rule, the House “accepted” the passage of the key DHS funding measure.

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But despite all this, the House and Senate were not in sync. They did not approve the same bill. Despite the shenanigans in the chamber, Republicans implored the Senate to pass the measure Monday morning, which it approved Friday night, without a roll call and with only two senators in the chamber.

If you’ve been following all of this, that’s exactly what’s been happening on Capitol Hill over the past few days as lawmakers scrambled to end a six-week shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.

By early Thursday evening, it was clear there was no way to pass a partisan GOP bill that would fund DHS in Sentember following a lengthy roll call vote that began in the afternoon.

But something was happening.

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Congress was looking at a 15-day recess for Easter and Passover on Friday. Failure to resolve the crisis meant that MPs had to leave the city by mid-April; This meant the closure was extended until then due to increased airport lines.

So Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R.S.D.) began working on something that could pass the Senate and potentially the House of Representatives before everyone else left Washington for recess.

Thune had suggested earlier in the week that the Senate should generally go to “Thursday” before frozen positions can begin to thaw. He was right. There was room for the Senate to approve a bipartisan bill to solve much of the funding crisis at DHS. So Thune’s charge late Thursday night and early Friday morning wasn’t about convincing bipartisan senators to support the bill he introduced. But instead Thune’s goal was to convince skeptical senators not to object and blow the whole thing up.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R.S.D.) has prepared a plan that could pass the Senate before Washington adjourns for Easter recess. (Nathan Posner/Anatolia via Getty Images)

There’s something called a “hotline” in the Senate. Whenever the leadership wants to create a voting lineup, make specific changes and perhaps reserve time for debate, it sends out a “hotline” to all 100 senators. If any senator objects, he/she reports it to the leadership. This makes the process easier in advance. It also ensures that senators aren’t blindsided by something called a “unanimous consent” request. Unanimous consent requests, or “UCs,” occur all the time in the Senate.

One of the most powerful tools in the Senate is “unanimous consent.” If you get the “unanimous consent” of all 100 senators, you can make the sun rise in the west. But even if all 99 other senators agree, all it takes to block UC is an objection.

The behind-the-scenes helpline takes care of this issue in advance. Any senator could object and block Thune’s proposal to fund most of DHS. However, if he approves all 100 senators behind the scenes beforehand, there will be no problems.

That’s why Thune took the stand at 2:19 Friday morning. Not a single senator approved his proposal. And so the South Dakota Republican took to the floor with a team of five senators and passed the bill. Not by UC. But with something called a “voice vote.” Supporters shout yes. The naysayers shout no. The side with the loudest voice wins. The Senate passed the bill. There was no roll call vote.

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So this wasn’t something that sneaked in in the dark of the night. If any senator had reservations, they could have flagged it. Or better yet, get on the field at 2:19 a.m. and contest. In short, there were 100 senators, 100 chiefs of staff, 100 legislative directors and 100 advisors who needed to know Thune’s plan. This is a universe of at least 400 people; even more. So this wasn’t an episode where someone moved quickly.

In the morning, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said he “opposes this bill.” The same goes for Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.

Well, no problem. But no one objected or backed down from the hotline. No one went down to the floor to request a roll call vote; he did not even claim that the Senate could do nothing because there was not a quorum to conduct business. So everything said by Republican senators about the bill was just academic or rhetorical objections. If these senators actually opposed the bill, they would have missed an opportunity to do something about it.

Even Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) has signaled support for the bill. (Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images)

It was thought the House might reluctantly pass the bill the next day to end most of the shutdown and pay TSA workers. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries signaled support for the DY. So did Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. Of course, liberal Democrats may oppose the bill because it does not change ICE. But the bill would likely be accepted by some Republicans and many Democrats. In fact, there may have been more Democratic yeses than Republican yeses. That would be toxic to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., lost his gavel on moving a bipartisan bill to prevent a fall 2023 shutdown.

So on Friday afternoon, Johnson passionately voiced his opposition to the Senate bill.

“Republicans will not be part of any effort to reopen our borders or halt immigration enforcement,” Johnson said, noting that the Senate plan leaves out funding for ICE and Border Patrol. “This gambit last night is a joke. I’m quite convinced that not every Senate Republican will be able to read the language of this bill.”

In other words, they didn’t get a call from the hotline?

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Yours truly questioned the Speaker and asked why he and Thune disagreed. Johnson blamed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, DY. From being behind the bill. I noted that Thune “was the engineer behind this.”

“I wouldn’t call John Thune the engineer on this job,” Johnson said.

“He didn’t have the authority to agree,” I countered.

“Let me answer the question, Chad,” sighed an exasperated Johnson.

So the House moved forward and passed its own bill to fully fund DHS on Friday night. Some House Republicans then expected the Senate to break with tradition and unanimously pass the bill in a brief pro forma session on Monday. In other words, House Republicans ripped the Senate apart for their actions early Friday morning. But just as House Republicans criticized the Senate for passing the bill on Friday, they also wanted senators to approve THEIR bill on Monday.

Note that there was no hotline for the House bill at that point.

“We would like to see them do it,” Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., said Friday.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said he “will not name John Thune as an engineer” behind the bill. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

But with the Senate convening for 31 seconds with scant attendance, Democrats sent an observer to guard the floor against potential GOP filibusters.

The Senate gavel. The Senate gave up. Nothing happened.

“I was there to object,” said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del. “I was here in case there was some bullshit.”

Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., called it “crazy” that Senate Republicans “didn’t even try” to pass the House bill. But the Senate’s sole Republican said the raccoons’ presence doomed that to failure.

“We don’t have approval yet,” said Sen. John Hoeven, R-D., who chaired the hearing. “They refused. Senator Coons was obviously there to do that.”

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But on Wednesday, the bill that Johnson threw out on Friday afternoon was about to be passed. Despite opposition from conservative Republicans, the House will pass the Senate bill, ending most of the DHS shutdown. The world has changed. President Trump was fine with this. Suddenly Johnson and Thune were on the same page.

So the House Republicans would eat the meal the Senate had prepared early Friday morning. And the House will likely approve it with so many Republicans spread across the country. But like Senate Republicans early Friday morning, no one will likely return to block it.

And until now, this wasn’t something designed in the dead of night that only 400 people knew about. The whole country was very aware of what was happening.