Dems block DHS funding after GOP rejects their counter, Thune says Schumer 'going in circles'

Senate Democrats blocked a last-minute attempt by Republicans to end the Homeland Security shutdown after the GOP rejected their "unserious" counteroffer. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., forced a vote on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill after swiftly killing Democrats' offer earlier Wednesday afternoon. He accused their latest counter as "not even close to being real." 

"They know better," Thune said. "They're asking for things that have already been turned down. So it just seems like they're going in circles."

The spur-of-the-moment test vote on Wednesday was designed to see whether Republicans could splinter any support from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Democrats’ unified front to support their own framework to reopen the agency, which Democrats already rejected on Tuesday. 

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But like the five times prior, the latest attempt was blocked by nearly every Senate Democrat.

Republicans are sticking by their initial offer, which would carve out Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) funding in exchange for reopening other agencies under the Homeland Security umbrella, including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), among others.

Republicans were already fuming that Democrats did not take the deal, noting that sidelining immigration enforcement funding was one of their key demands. They also charged that Schumer and his caucus were backing away from previously negotiated positions.

Still, Senate Democrats are pushing for stringent reforms to ICE, including requiring judicial warrants for agents and banning DHS agents from wearing masks. Those provisions were among nine total demands added to the GOP framework. Those asks, in particular, have been firm red lines for Republicans throughout the shutdown.

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Republicans have also consistently argued that if Democrats want reforms, they must be willing to fund immigration enforcement.

Schumer pushed back on the Senate floor shortly after announcing he had sent Republicans the latest offer, calling their accusations "bad faith" that "will only slow things down."

"In fact, over the weekend, Democrats had constructive conversations in person with our Republican colleagues," Schumer said. "They — the Republican colleagues — conceded that some of the reforms, verbally, that we have been looking for, they said these make sense."

"We thought there might be a path forward on some of the ways to reform ICE and to get some of the things everybody knows ought to be in federal legislation," he continued. "We thought there had been some progress. But then Republicans sent us their offer yesterday, and it contained none of what had been talked about."

But Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, who was part of the White House meeting that produced the DHS framework, accused Democrats of "backing up."

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"If you really want to cut to the chase — take all the [expletive] aside — here's where we're at," Moreno said. "Democrats made an offer. Want to know what the offer is? They don't want us to deport anybody who entered this country illegally or overstayed their visa unless that person committed a serious crime. That's what they want. That's obviously insane, because that's the base that they deal with."

Thune also argued that Republicans and the Trump administration have given Democrats much of what they wanted, including replacing former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem with newly confirmed Secretary Markwayne Mullin, ramping down immigration operations in Minnesota, and providing several other reforms.

Some Democrats want additional guardrails on how funding in the GOP framework would be handled — specifically to prevent money from being shifted within the agency and redirected to immigration operations.

Thune said there could be some room for that concession but reiterated that Democrats’ other demands were "unserious." He also said there was "no point" in Republicans offering another counterproposal.

"This is, honestly, retreading ground that we've been treading for weeks," Thune said.