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After weeks of stalemate — and mounting airport delays nationwide — leaders in both parties are scrambling to work out a deal to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, though it remains unclear if a compromise is in reach.
A Friday night meeting on Capitol Hill — which marks the second straight day of talks — is the latest sign that Republicans and the White House are seeking a swift way out of the growing political crisis. Democrats remained tight lipped as they emerged from the talks, though a key GOP leader said she expected the group to meet again in the coming days.
Multiple Republicans said leaving the meeting that the GOP had bolstered its latest offer to Democrats, though they declined to specify how the White House was proposing to address the Democrats’ demands on new limits for immigration enforcement.
Frustrations have been steadily growing on both sides of the aisle over how to defuse a weeks-long standoff over the shutdown as Democrats have so far dismissed GOP efforts to negotiate over ICE tactics as inadequate.
But lawmakers are eager to reach a deal in the next week before Congress leaves town for a lengthy spring recess, faced with hourly reports of long lines at airports and a shrinking pot of FEMA money.
A meeting with White House border czar Tom Homan and bipartisan Senate appropriators Friday evening was brief, with Democrats leaving without speaking to reporters less than an hour after it began.
Republicans at the meeting said that Democrats were not upset when they left, and Homan said, “Discussions are continuing, we need to get the government back open.”
A Democratic source familiar with the talks said, “It was a productive meeting, but there’s a ways to go to secure the significant reforms that Democrats have laid out for weeks and that are necessary to earn the support of the Democratic caucus.”
Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins told reporters, “The White House has added to its offer,” describing the latest version as a “very fair, reasonable offer,” without outlining specifics. Collins added, “yes,” they are now waiting for Democrats to counter.
Asked if the group would meet again Saturday, Collins replied, “I certainly hope so,” but noted that depends on Democrats. She added, “I thought the meeting could have gone longer.”
GOP Sen. Katie Britt called the conversation, “productive,” adding “we built off of the conversations yesterday, which is positive.”
“I think we need to work through the weekend to achieve a result or figure out a pathway forward,” she said.
So far Democrats have remained defiant in their position that they will not fund DHS without concrete changes to federal law preventing the kind of violence seen in Minneapolis earlier this year. They argue the White House is refusing to make any real concessions.
Sen. Jacky Rosen, a centrist Democrat, was adamant earlier on Friday that she will not alter her position until the White House gets serious in its proposals – a sign that the Democratic party is not shrinking from its demands.
“You’ve seen the offers they sent back. ‘We’ll be glad to uphold the current law.’ Well, that’s great. That’s no negotiation. ‘We’ll be glad to follow the Fourth Amendment where we think we should.’ Oh, you suddenly realize we have a bill of rights? Thank you for saying that you’ll enforce it through the executive branch. That’s not a negotiation,” she told CNN ahead of the Friday night meeting.
Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock — who represents the massive Atlanta airport that’s experienced some of the worst delays in the shutdown – also made clear he was not backing down from Democratic demands over ICE.
“I don’t know why the Republicans insist on holding federal workers hostage, holding TSA workers hostage so they can have an unaccountable paramilitary force on our streets. It’s unconscionable,” Warnock said.
Asked if he would support a short-term funding bill amid ongoing ICE negotiations, Warnock said he would not vote to “continue the status quo.”
Sen. Chris Murphy told CNN ahead of Friday’s meeting that the major sticking point is that the GOP is still unwilling to budge.
“The Republicans aren’t producing any real, meaningful offers. We’ve given them reasonable priorities, and we have not seen anything meaningful from them yet,” Murphy said.
Murphy and other Democrats have pushed an alternate funding proposal that would restore federal dollars for TSA, FEMA and other agencies – but not immigration enforcement.
Republicans, however, have rejected the idea. Multiple GOP senators told CNN they would only support a bill that fully funds DHS – not simply funding agencies in a piecemeal fashion.
“No, no, I’m not defunding the police. I’m not defunding ICE,” Sen. Rick Scott of Florida told CNN when asked if he’d support a bill to fund TSA but not the full department. “I’m not going to do that.”
Democrats argue that immigration agencies – specifically ICE and Customs and Border Protection – don’t need the cash right now. Republicans have already given them enough money to last years through their massive domestic policy bill last year, they say.
“ICE got $75 billion in the one big ugly bill. They’re not suffering from any lack of funding,” Warnock said. “We ought to fund TSA now.”
GOP Sen. John Kennedy said he would only support that Democratic proposal if the very next day, Republicans all agreed to use their special budgetary powers, known as reconciliation, to override the Democrats and muscle through their own ICE funding bill.
“I think we ought to do it and then the very next day after we do it, we ought to do a reconciliation bill that does everything we want to do with respect to ICE,” Kennedy said.
