Senate GOP losing patience with Speaker Johnson as DHS faces crisis

Senate Republicans are increasingly frustrated with Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) decision not to put a Senate-passed bill to fund much of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the House for a vote; because they fear the White House may soon run out of money to pay federal workers affected by the partial government shutdown.

GOP senators were careful not to publicly criticize Johnson and House conservatives for holding up the Senate-passing Homeland Security funding bill to avoid further inflaming the situation.

But they warn that if Congress doesn’t act soon, the White House will soon run out of flexibility to continue paying Homeland Security employees, including employees of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Coast Guard and other critical agencies.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said she wants the House to take immediate action on the package the Senate unanimously passed before Easter, which would fund most of DHS but would not fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Border Patrol.

“I think it makes more sense to try to move things quickly,” he said.

Murkowski acknowledged growing frustration among GOP senators that the House did not vote on the Senate-passed package that senators hoped would provide a quick resolution to a two-month impasse over Homeland Security funding.

“I think we saw this as the simplest, fastest, most targeted way to end the partial government shutdown,” he said.

A Republican senator who asked to remain anonymous said GOP senators mostly blame Democrats for repeatedly blocking the Homeland Security appropriations bill that includes funding for ICE.

But the senator said Johnson’s refusal to move quickly on the Senate-passed compromise had made a bad situation worse.

The senator said Johnson backed away from an agreement that GOP senators thought the House Speaker had agreed to with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R.S.D.) to address the Senate-passed funding bill before the Easter recess.

“We have high-level agreements in many respects with our leadership — or at least conceptual agreements — I don’t know why we can’t get behind them. It’s frustrating,” the senator said.

Senate Republicans reached a deal with Democrats in late March to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security and then provide additional funding for ICE and Border Patrol through the budget reconciliation process to bypass Democrats’ filibuster.

A Senate GOP aide said Republican senators were told Johnson and President Trump would support the Senate bill, which would fund much of the Department of Homeland Security, before the Senate allowed the bill to advance last month.

Democrats have refused to fund ICE and Border Patrol unless Republicans agree to major immigration enforcement reforms, such as requiring federal officers to obtain judicial authorization before entering private homes and banning officers from wearing masks.

But Johnson told reporters Wednesday that the Senate will not advance the bill to partially fund the Department of Homeland Security until Republican senators pass a budget reconciliation bill that would fund ICE and Border Patrol for the next 3 1/2 years.

House conservatives expressed disappointment that Senate Republicans agreed to separate Department of Homeland Security funding from funding for other departments, arguing that the decision gave Democrats more leverage in the fight over ICE.

“I think the Senate continues to make mistakes, and I think we live with those mistakes every day,” said Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a leading member of the House Freedom Caucus.

“We shouldn’t have isolated DHS. Now we’re here isolating ICE and Border Patrol,” he said of GOP senators’ decision to pass a bill that would fund most of the Department of Homeland Security but not the major immigration enforcement agencies.

“But if the Senate is going to continue and they’re going to get this done because they think they can assume that we all vote for everything, I think that’s a mistake,” he added.

Rep. Ben Cline (R-Va.) said House conservatives don’t feel comfortable passing a partial Homeland Security funding bill, while funding for ICE and Border Patrol remains uncertain for the remainder of Trump’s second term.

“If we can introduce a skinny compromise bill first, then we’ll be more comfortable with the funding bill that passes the Senate… But until then, it would make more sense to compromise across the board and address this with a single bill,” he said.

The “skinny” compromise bill designed by Senate Republican leaders would fund ICE and Border Patrol for three and a half years and cost between $65 billion and $70 billion.

GOP senators do not want to publicly crush Johnson, who is under tremendous pressure from the conservative House Freedom Caucus not to call for a vote on the Senate bill until the Senate passes a budget compromise that funds ICE and CBP.

“I try not to tell the House what to do or how to do it,” Thune told reporters Monday. “Frankly, the sooner we get funding to all of these agencies, the better.”

But it could take another month for a bill to become law under special budget reconciliation protections to prevent Democrats from filibustering.

White House budget director Russell Vought warned senators Thursday that the Department of Homeland Security is “falling apart” because Congress has failed to provide funding since Feb. 14.

Vought told senators at the Budget Committee hearing that he and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin are pushing to prevent federal workers from resigning en masse.

“There’s not enough money for the entire Department of Homeland Security,” Vought said.

“As of right now, the Department of Homeland Security is disbanding because the secretary and I have to find ways to temporarily fund people’s paychecks so we don’t have people quitting and starting new careers,” Vought said.

The budget chief warned that staffing levels could fall if Congress doesn’t find a way soon to end the two-month Homeland Security outage.

“Some of the things we saw the weekend Secretary Mullin took office were incredibly concerning; we should have a funding mechanism for the entire Department of Homeland Security,” Vought cautioned.

Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), chair of the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, echoed Vought’s view that Congress should move as quickly as possible to address the growing crisis at the Department of Homeland Security.

“Time is of the essence,” he said when asked about Vought’s statement. “I’m definitely not a fan of where we are in this process, but we’re where we are and we need to find a path forward.”

Emily Brooks contributed.

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