Senate Republicans are worried that Democrats will force a government shutdown in the fall, and are eyeing ways to prevent government funding from being weaponized ever again.
Republicans are in the early stages of funding federal immigration enforcement through the party-line budget reconciliation process — a maneuver that would cut Democrats out of the process altogether.
The push comes as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) remains closed after Democrats more than 60 days ago refused to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) unless Republicans agreed to stringent reforms, including warrant requirements and agents unmasking.
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Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said “it was a great idea,” and claims conversations were ongoing about how to include a measure in the reconciliation package that could survive the strict Senate rules dictating what can and can’t be done through the partisan process.
He told reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday afternoon that Republicans tried and failed during the government shutdown last year to pass legislation that would prevent future shutdowns.
“If we could figure out a way to execute on that — anything that we can do that would ensure that the Democrats don’t decide once again to play partisan political games with the function of our government would be a good outcome,” Thune said.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who has pushed legislation to prevent shutdowns, was skeptical about whether Republicans could actually get that kind of measure into the broader package.
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“I would support that,” Hawley told Fox News Digital. “Will that happen? It seems to me to be pretty unlikely. But I think this package is baked, the text is out, it is what it is.”
He warned that Congress likely “would be facing this again” when the current fiscal year ends in September because “the Democrats are in a hostage taking sort of mood.”
“And sadly, the hostages they’re taking are for working people of this country,” Hawley went on. “And if they shut down the government again in September, which they very well may, well, that would just be disastrous, I think.”
Democrats, however, view the GOP’s reconciliation push as a prime opportunity to go on the offensive.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said his party will unload several amendments that target affordability issues in the country.
When asked if Democrats had overplayed their hand on immigration enforcement reforms now that Republicans plan to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three and a half years, Schumer countered that Americans wanted changes and that Republicans were “tied in a knot.”
“They’re twisting themselves in a pretzel,” the senior senator from New York said. “They’re giving us an opportunity to emphasize the number one issue facing the American people in terms of reconciliation. So we Democrats are staunch and united in what we did.”
If Republicans can’t stop shutdowns, another option could be ensuring that federal workers are at least paid.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Fox News Digital that he’s been pushing the House — which has so far not voted on the Senate’s carve-out DHS funding bill — to include his Shutdown Fairness Act, which would pay federal employees during closures and possibly act as a sweetener to conservatives frustrated by the Senate’s bill.
“I mean, they’re pretty upset about, I guess, not really being informed in terms of what the Senate was gonna do here,” Johnson said. “We were just doing what we could do to fund the agencies so we don’t deplete the flexible funding we had in reconciliation, but the box ticking on that.”
“So, the sooner we pass the partial DHS funding bill — I just think if Democrats would allow that bill to be passed by unanimous consent, I think they [wouldn’t] have a hard time voting for that exact same bill if all we’re adding is something their unions are lobbying hard to get,” he continued.
