WASHINGTON: Republicans are invoking the war in Iran and the prospect of retaliatory terrorist attacks as they tee up votes Thursday on a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security.
The House already approved a DHS spending bill in January, but it faltered in the Senate as Democrats insisted on changes to immigration enforcement operations following the shooting death of ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. As a result, funding for the department lapsed on Feb. 14.
Republicans are calling on Democrats to reconsider their vote in the wake of the conflict in Iran. Both the House and the Senate are expected to hold votes on the matter.
“The military action in Iran makes it all more urgent and crucial to have a fully funded, fully staffed DHS across all its departments,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said.
It did not appear the GOP’s strategy had changed the position of Democratic lawmakers, though. They said they are prepared to fund most of the agencies at the department, just not Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Customs and Border Protection.
“It’s the same lousy, rotten bill that does not put any guardrails or constraints on ICE or CBP after federal agents shot American citizens in the street,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.
Workers are beginning to miss part of their paychecks
Following the longest federal shutdown in the country’s history last year, Congress has completed work on 11 of this year’s 12 appropriations bills. Only the bill for Homeland Security remains outstanding.
Republicans said the timing couldn’t be worse for a Homeland Security shutdown. While a large majority of the department’s employees are considered essential and continue to work, many will not receive a full paycheck this week.
Republicans said the prospect of an increase in unscheduled absences by the Transportation Security Administration’s agents and screeners could lead to longer wait times at the nation’s airports. Meanwhile, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has canceled various assessments to determine vulnerabilities to critical infrastructure. And training for first responders conducted through the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been canceled.
“Can we not understand America is under siege, now likely to be attacked because radical Islam is under siege, and they’re going to hit back and we’re sitting here looking at each other and not funding DHS,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said during a hearing Tuesday featuring DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
Democrats are seeking several changes at the department include prohibiting ICE enforcement operations at sensitive locations like schools and churches, allowing independent investigations into alleged wrongdoing, requiring warrants to be signed by judges before federal agents can forcibly enter private homes or other nonpublic spaces without consent, and requiring agents to wear identification and remove their masks.
Republicans note that the bill does include a bipartisan provision directing more resources for deescalation training and $20 million to outfit immigration enforcement agents with body-worn cameras.
Little to show from negotiations
The White House and congressional Democrats don’t appear to have made significant progress in recent weeks resolving their differences after trading several offers.
“Look, we’re still far apart but we’re negotiating and exchanging paper back and forth,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said.
Alabama Sen. Katie Britt, the Republican chairwoman of a panel that oversees homeland security funding, said she’s been talking to Democrats about a possible pathway forward, but prospects are unclear.
She and other Republicans are citing last weekend’s mass shooting in Austin as an example of the dangerous threat environment that’s facing Americans following the attack on Iran.
“I think that it is incredibly irresponsible to not fund the agency that is supposed to keep us safe here at home,” Britt said.
Democrats said they are ready to fully fund all the agencies within the department except for ICE and CBP.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, authored a proposal to do that, but it was blocked from consideration. She said Republican leadership was using Trump’s “aimless, costly and illegal war with Iran to force through more funding for ICE and Customs and Border Protection without any of the substantial changes that the vast majority of Americans believe those agencies need.”
“It is a cynical effort and it is one that will fail,” DeLauro said.