Congress
DHS negotiations have yet to get underway, Thune says, as shutdown clock ticks
With eight days to avert a Department of Homeland Security shutdown, serious negotiations have yet to begin, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday.
The South Dakota Republican said Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), who is leading the talks for Republicans, has reached out to Democrats for a sitdown but has gotten “crickets” so far in response.
Britt publicly slammed a Democratic offer released Wednesday night as a “a ridiculous Christmas list of demands for the press,” while Thune also pooh-poohed the proposal from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
“There are a few things that there’s probably some room to negotiate on,” Thune said about the 10-item list. “But a lot of that stuff obviously just wasn’t serious.”
Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who is the top Democrat on the Appropriations subpanel overseeing DHS that Britt chairs, said Thursday, “I don’t think that’s accurate” when asked about claims that Democrats were not willing to sit down. Britt was also spotted talking Thursday afternoon with Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), a frequent leadership go-between.
Thune is waiting to see if the talks shake loose by Thursday afternoon, when senators will leave Washington for the week. He warned he is ready to start moving Monday to pass another DHS stopgap bill ahead of the Feb. 13 deadline.
“If they refuse to sit down and actually come to the table and negotiate, pretty clearly we’ll need one,” Thune said.
Republicans haven’t decided how long that stopgap should be. Thune has floated a two- or three-week patch if negotiations are ongoing but is also warning Congress could shift to long-term continuing resolution, keeping current funding levels in place through September, if talks don’t progress.
He said Thursday that the length of the stopgap would depend on what Democrats would accept since their votes will be needed to advance another patch through the Senate. Many House and Senate Democrats have vowed not to support another CR, though a crucial swath of senators have left the door open.
House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar has formally announced his bid for House majority whip.
“With a Democratic majority, we’ll have the tools to rein in this out-of-control administration and investigate the agencies, officials and corporations that have been making life harder and more expensive for our communities,” the California Democrat wrote in a letter to colleagues Thursday. “I look forward to working with each of you to deliver on our affordability agenda.”
Aguilar is currently unopposed for the No. 3 slot in the new House Democratic majority.
As whip, Aguilar will have to stitch together an ideologically diverse caucus that could be as large as 260 members. With such a significant margin, Aguilar would have more cushion to lose votes on key legislation than Republican leaders, who have struggled to wrangle their members on party-line bills over the last two years.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York and Minority Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts have already announced their candidacies for speaker and majority leader, respectively. They also have no challengers at this time.
Rep. French Hill, a senior Republican who barely won reelection in Little Rock this week, said President Donald Trump’s “unfavorability” is to blame for sweeping GOP losses.
The Associated Press called the race for Hill on Thursday after the six-term lawmaker and House Financial Services Committee chair faced off against Democrat Chris Jones. Hill won by less than 2 percentage points.
“President Trump’s unfavorability had a lot of impact on races across the country,” Hill said in an interview. “I think that’s evident by some of the exit polling. We had, in my judgment, recruited good candidates who had good funding for their campaigns. But it was a wave election, and we lost a lot of really good, constructive members of the House.”
It was the closest race yet for Hill, who struggled to win even as he outspent Jones, a former Arkansas gubernatorial candidate, 3 to 1. As House Financial Services chair, Hill has been instrumental the last two years in enacting bipartisan housing and cryptocurrency legislation.
During the campaign, Hill was willing to distance himself from Trump, especially when it came to touting the housing bill that the president refused to sign.
In the interview Wednesday, Hill suggested that Republicans could break further with Trump during the final two years of his term.
“He will be considered a lame duck, and that often has members of both political parties looking out at who will be the standard-bearers in the 2028 presidential election,” he said. “So, I think certainly that will influence policymaking and politics inside the House and Senate.”
Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts officially announced her bid for majority leader in a letter to colleagues Thursday.
Clark, currently the No. 2 to Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, is widely considered a shoo-in among her colleagues. She is currently unopposed, and if she wins, she would be the first woman with the title and most progressive member of the top leadership trio that is also expected to include Jeffries as speaker and Rep. Pete Aguilar as whip.
In line with leadership’s campaign message, Clark emphasized “Affordability, Affordability, Affordability” in her pitch to the caucus. Specifically, she named “ending the reckless war in Iran, rescinding Trump’s tariffs, reversing Republicans’ catastrophic cuts to healthcare and food assistance, curing off their giveaways to the Epstein Class, and pursuing rigorous oversight of this corrupt administration.”
To wrangle House Democrats’ massive majority — which is tracking to reach over 255 seats — Clark vowed to members: “At every decision point, I intend to work closely with you to understand the needs of your district and maximize your ability to deliver for your constituents.”
“Democrats will succeed by working as a team.” she added.
Clark will get a vote during House Democratic leadership elections scheduled for Nov. 18 and 19.
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