Congress
Congress battens down the hatches for long DHS shutdown
Lawmakers left Washington for a week-long recess Thursday, showing no urgency to avert a shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security that will take effect Saturday morning.
The overwhelming sense of resignation reflected the reality that neither Republicans nor Democrats saw an obvious path forward to resolving their differences over President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and whether to rein it in as part of legislation to fund DHS.
Though negotiations between the White House and Senate Democrats continue, the trajectory of talks suggest DHS funding will be lapsed for at least 10 days — meaning the soonest any resolution would be reached is in the political hothouse around Trump’s State of the Union address on Feb. 24. The lack of progress has even raised the prospect that Trump’s speech to Congress might be postponed, and some Democrats are mulling a boycott.
“This ‘nyah nyah’ is going to go on for a while,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said Thursday.
Even if a deal were struck, Kennedy added, “I’m not entirely convinced that anybody would vote for it. I can’t see the Dems voting for anything because they’re not going to get pounded for funding ICE. And the Republicans on my side are not going to get pounded for hurting ICE.”
Negotiations between Democrats and White House officials were ongoing as of Thursday evening. Democrats, who have floated a series of guardrails on immigration enforcement agencies in exchange for funding DHS, were expected to formally respond to the latest White House offer over the weekend after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries bashed it Thursday without disclosing specifics on what was contained within.
The absence of leaked bill text in the exchanges between Democrats and the White House was one subtle sign of encouragement for those watching the negotiations that both sides were taking the talks seriously.
As they prepared to leave Washington, Republicans continued to knock key demands from Democrats, including a proposal that immigration enforcement agents seek judicial warrants before entering private property.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said that Republicans and Democrats were “not close.” A senior White House official granted anonymity during a call with reporters warned that the administration wouldn’t “accept concessions that meaningfully affect its ability to carry out its immigration enforcement agenda.”
Even if a compromise emerges, some Democrats worry that Republicans will insist on so many qualifications that any of their proposed guardrails would be rendered toothless.
“We can’t pass reform that has exceptions and caveats — ‘you can’t wear masks, except for seven different situations where you can. You can’t bust into people’s homes, except 20 different situations where you can,’” said Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the subcommittee overseeing DHS appropriations. “The offers we’ve gotten are just not serious.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) said it was paramount that both sides “sit down with each other face to face and talk about what you’re doing.” But there were no plans for an in-person meeting.
It will likely take weeks for the public to start feeling pain from a lapse in DHS funding, meaning each side will feel limited political pressure to give in right away. TSA screeners are not set to miss paychecks until March, and FEMA coffers are likely full enough to respond to natural disasters for the near future.
After the Senate failed to pass DHS funding legislation Thursday, lawmakers in both chambers left Washington with guidance to be ready to come back in a matter of days if Democrats and the White House were able to strike a deal – something that members didn’t see as a realistic possibility before the end of next week.
“Both sides could dig in and just let this thing drag on,” Thune said. “I don’t think that’s in anybody’s best interest.”
Jennifer Scholtes, Mia McCarthy, Myah Ward contributed to this report.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp will headline a fundraiser next week for Rep. Mike Collins, the state’s GOP Senate nominee, according to an invite obtained by Blue Light News.
The Sept. 24 event will be held in Atlanta, and it comes as public polling shows Collins trailing Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff. Republicans have pushed to bring in more financial resources to close the gap in the top battleground.
Ossoff has repeatedly led Collins in candidate-level fundraising, but the Republican party committees and President Donald Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC combined hold a huge fundraising edge over the affiliated Democratic Party’s committees — which could potentially give Collins a boost.
The event, billed as a “roundtable and reception benefiting” Collins, could be a boon to Georgia Republicans, who have privately worried that party leaders are prioritizing other competitive Senate races, including in Michigan and Maine, as they look to defend the upper chamber.
Thune, as Senate GOP leader, is one of the party’s most prominent fundraisers. Kemp, meanwhile, has strong ties to Georgia and remains a popular figure in the state.
Collins’ campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“The party is closing ranks behind Mike Collins with two of the strongest fundraisers heading to Atlanta to help him,” said one person close to the Collins campaign, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the dynamics of the race. “That’s not the sign of a candidate in trouble, it’s the sign of a candidate — who has closed the race from 13 to 7 points while being outspent — getting air support to bring this thing home.”
Kemp — who initially backed former football coach Derek Dooley in the Senate GOP primary — endorsed Collins earlier this week.
The fundraiser will also feature Georgia’s first lady Marty Kemp.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries again declined to say how he will respond to two rebel Democrats who have twice bucked party leaders to advance the Republican floor agenda.
“As I repeatedly made clear, I’ll have more to say — we’ll have more to say — about the situation when we have more to say about the situation,” Jeffries said at a Thursday news conference with the No. 2 and 3 leaders, Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar of California.
Clark suggested Wednesday that one of the rebels, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, should lose her Appropriations Committee seat after the second break. After Gluesenkamp Perez and Jared Golden of Maine voted with Republicans earlier this month, Jeffries pledged a “serious response” that did not publicly materialize.
Standing beside Clark and Aguilar on Thursday, Jeffries said, “There is no daylight between the three of us, and we’ll address the situation when we address the situation.”
“The focus right now on taking back control of the House of Representatives,” he added. “That’s what the American people want to see — a dramatic change in this country because they are drowning.”
Sen. Jon Husted will try to send the first major legislative action to address the costs of the artificial intelligence boom to President Donald Trump’s desk Thursday.
The Ohio Republican, facing a tough reelection bid, will try to pass the Ratepayer Protection Act by requesting unanimous consent from his colleagues, a process by which senators can swiftly clear legislation. It would take only one senator to object, however, to sink the effort.
“Senator Husted will go to the floor this afternoon and request a live UC on the Ratepayer Protection Act,” said Olivia Tripodi, a spokesperson for his office.
If passed, the Ratepayer Protection Act could become Congress’s answer to address the costs of the data center build-out ahead of the midterm election. It comes after weeks of internal debate among lawmakers in both parties over how to best respond to growing backlash against data centers and could set the stage for further congressional action on AI in the months ahead.
It’s unclear, however, if all Democrats will line up behind the bill, which passed in a broad bipartisan House vote of 417-3 on Wednesday.
Democrats haven’t said if they will block Husted’s bill, but they could make a counteroffer to try to pass their own legislation instead, according to two people granted anonymity to speak candidly. Some Democrats have said the bill doesn’t go far enough to protect ratepayers.
“Data centers is a key issue and Jon Husted is in a very tough race, … so this is a frequent approach: last-minute legislation on a subject that’s controversial in the senatorial contest,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).
The bill would require states to consider — but not mandate they adopt — a federal standard ensuring large data center operators cover 100% of the costs of new generation and transmission upgrades.
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee (R-Utah) also said he would need to review the bill more closely.
“I’ve got to review that more closely if it’s going to be UC,” Lee said Tuesday. “There are several other procedural mechanisms by which this could receive a vote in some fashion.”
Husted is leading the Senate version of the bill, while Rep. Gabe Evans (R-Colo.) and Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) sponsored the House bill.
Anthony Cruz contributed to this report.
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