Democratic and Republican leaders showed no sign of narrowing their differences on Department of Homeland Security funding Wednesday as a Feb. 13 deadline draws nearer.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer reiterated demands for new restrictions on immigration enforcement agencies at a joint news conference. Flanked by other Democratic leaders, the leaders said they plan to submit draft legislation to Republicans by Thursday.

“We’re going to have tough, strong legislation,” Schumer said. “We want our Republican colleagues to finally get serious about this, because this is turning America inside out.”

Earlier Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune not only warned that a deal would be next to impossible to consummate before next week’s deadline but threatened a possible long-term stopgap that would effectively exclude changes to immigration enforcement.

Without quick progress in the talks, he said, “it may be the best way to deal with this particular appropriations bill is, do a year-long CR if that’s what it takes,” Thune said, referring to a continuing resolution that would continue existing DHS funding levels through Sept. 30.

While the two Democratic leaders reiterated in a news conference that they are “on the same page,” Jeffries and Schumer declined to draw the same red lines on a full-year DHS punt.

Jeffries said after the news conference he is “a hard no” on a full-year CR, while Schumer stopped short of a hard commitment.

“Republicans shouldn’t expect our votes if they’re not willing to enact strong, tough reform,” he said when asked if Senate Democrats would oppose another punt.

The list of demands Jeffries and Schumer laid out Wednesday largely tracks with an earlier list of DHS proposals Senate Democrats put forward after the Jan. 24 killing of a Minneapolis man by federal agents there. They include prohibiting masks for federal agents in most circumstances and requiring a judge to sign off on warrants for DHS immigration apprehensions — proposals that some top Republicans have already rejected.

In addition to the policy sparring Wednesday, there was some personal squabbling, too — including over who should be involved in notching any agreement.

Thune suggested any deal needed to be cut primarily between Democrats and the Trump administration. He also warned that he does not view Jeffries as a reliable negotiating partner.

“He’s just not, and I think he and, for that matter, Leader Schumer are afraid of their shadows and they are getting a lot of blowback and pressure from their left,” he said. “I don’t think he wants a deal at all. I think he wants the issue.”

Jeffries, in response to the comments, said it was Thune who is “afraid of his own shadow” in the form of President Donald Trump.

“We are negotiating in good faith because we want to try to achieve an outcome, but the changes that are enacted with respect to the way in which the Department of Homeland Security is conducting itself need to be bold, meaningful and transformative,” he told reporters.

Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott on Wednesday said he did not believe Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell committed a crime during his congressional testimony last year about the central bank’s headquarter renovations.

“I was the one asking the questions,” he said on Fox Business. “Jay Powell was responding to me. Obviously, he and I have very, very strong disagreements on many issues, everyone.”

He said it was time for a new head of the central bank and called Powell “inept” but added: “ineptness or being incompetent is not a criminal act.”

“I believe what he did was made a gross error in judgment,” Scott said. “He was not prepared for that hearing. I do not believe that he committed a crime during the hearing.”

The Justice Department issued subpoenas last month to the Fed, probing his statements to Congress, a fact revealed by Powell himself in an unprecedented video message where he accused the administration of using the investigation to pressure him to lower interest rates. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), saying he fears for the Fed’s independence, has said he will not vote to advance any Fed nominees until the administration has finished its probe.

Scott said the issue would be “resolved,” adding: “Thom Tillis will be voting for Kevin Warsh as the next chairman of the Federal Reserve.”

Tillis has spoken positively of Warsh but said his stance regarding the DOJ investigation has not changed.

Scott’s comments mark the first time that the powerful banking head has substantively weighed in on the administration’s move.

Congress just launched itself onto a nine-day runway to overcome deep partisan divides over the fate of President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda — and conditions are trending toward another lengthy shutdown for the Department of Homeland Security.

According to several senators, DHS funding talks were largely on hold while lawmakers waited for the House to clear the Senate-passed, five-bill spending package Tuesday and end the brief partial government shutdown. Now lawmakers have little time left before the Feb. 13 deadline to reach a bipartisan agreement on major changes to DHS policies and avoid a funding lapse that will also affect TSA, the Coast Guard, FEMA and other agencies — and Democrats are threatening to block any extension of the two-week stopgap measure.

— A stalemate over demands: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday that Democrats plan to formally present Republicans a proposal soon for placing more guardrails around ICE and Customs and Border Protection. The wishlist could include tighter rules on the use of warrants, a ban on masks and mandates for body cameras and IDs on federal agents.

There’s broad GOP opposition to many of these ideas. Speaker Mike Johnson argued Tuesday that unmasking would be especially dangerous for the agents.

“I can tell you that we are never going to go along with adding an entirely new layer of judicial warrants,” Johnson added. “It is unimplementable.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune believes negotiations will need to be primarily between Democrats and the White House, though Republicans will play a part. He said Alabama Sen. Katie Britt, the top Republican on the Senate Homeland funding panel, will take the lead for the GOP.

Republicans want to crack down on so-called “sanctuary cities,” localities that don’t comply with federal immigration laws. Some are also mulling whether to try and attach bigger immigration provisions onto the DHS stopgap bill, like increasing penalties for immigrants who cross the border illegally.

But trying to crack down on “sanctuary cities” has long been a non-starter for Democrats. “We’re not going to make people unsafe, this is about making people safe,” said Washington Sen. Patty Murray, her chamber’s top Democratic appropriator.

— A slippery stopgap slope: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Tuesday that “an additional [continuing resolution], from our standpoint, is off the table” despite warnings from Thune and other Republicans that another short-term punt may be necessary to buy more time for talks.

Some lawmakers are increasingly pessimistic about the prospects for reaching any DHS deal given Congress’ perennial struggle to agree on immigration policy.

“I’m a little skeptical of the entire project here of trying to lard up an appropriations bill that funds critical agencies with a whole bunch of statutory restrictions,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said.

Thune warned there’s another possibility: If negotiations drag on too long, lawmakers could eventually be forced to swallow a measure that keeps the status quo at DHS for the remainder of the fiscal year with no policy changes or new funding levels.

“My assumption would be that even if we don’t have an agreement that we would do a CR for some foreseeable amount of time” to continue discussions, Thune told Blue Light News, “or maybe at some point we have to resolve to a full-year CR.”

What else we’re watching:   

— Tech hearing: House Judiciary will hold a hearing on Europe’s tech laws at 10 a.m. It’s the latest escalation in the transatlantic fight over regulations that Republicans claim disproportionately silence conservative speech online. European countries view the regulations as crucial guardrails for ensuring online safety and fair market competition, while American tech companies argue such measures target them unfairly.

Jordain Carney, Meredith Lee Hill, Mia McCarthy and Gabby Miller contributed to this report.