Congress
One month later, the DHS shutdown shows no signs of ending
Top Democrats and White House officials are nowhere near close to a breakthrough in negotiations to end the Homeland Security shutdown as the funding lapse is due to hit its one-month mark Saturday and real pain begins.
It’s been more than two weeks since the White House laid out its latest proposal for restoring full Department of Homeland Security operations alongside changes to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics, and Democrats have yet to send a formal counteroffer in the negotiations spurred by the fatal shootings by federal agents in January of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota.
TSA screeners are now missing their first full paychecks of the shutdown, which could lead to more agents skipping work or quitting — and exacerbate already-lengthy wait times at airport security checkpoints throughout the country. Republicans think this could be the breaking point where Democrats relent.
“I’m hopeful that as you see these problems at the airports, that the public will start talking to Democrats,” said Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.).
But Democrats have a legislative rebuttal: Bills that would fully fund TSA and other parts of DHS that are casualties of the larger immigration standoff. Republicans have repeatedly objected over the last two weeks when Democrats asked for votes on those bills on the Senate floor.
“Who’s standing in the way? America, look at it,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a floor speech Thursday. “We’re not putting any preconditions on funding TSA; the Republicans are.”
The Trump administration remains in “frequent” communication with senior Democratic lawmakers, according to one senior White House official granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. Another White House official said the president’s team “remains interested in continuing conversations with Democrats about ways to end this shutdown” but that “Democrats, regrettably, have chosen to punish the American people.”
Yet since the DHS shutdown began Feb. 14, Democrats on Capitol Hill say the administration has been unwilling to make any significant changes to its immigration enforcement tactics, while Republicans insist that the White House has in fact offered Democrats a deal they would be foolish not to take. Amid finger-pointing and deep distrust, there’s no sign the impasse will anytime soon.
On both sides, negotiators have been careful not to divulge the details of the offers each party is representing very differently. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) said in an interview this week that she “would like to see the Democrats actually read what the White House sent. It is an eminently reasonable proposal.”
The Senate’s top Democratic appropriator, Washington Sen. Patty Murray, suggested Thursday this wasn’t the case. She also said that while people outside the negotiations are “guessing” at the contents of the recent White House framework, ultimately “words matter.”
“You can have money for body cameras, but not require them — two very different things,” she said of GOP claims about what has been proposed. “I don’t want to characterize anything.”
Democrats are demanding new policies that would prohibit federal immigration agents from wearing masks, require officers to display identification and ensure that agents would be barred from detaining people in certain places, such as churches and schools. Democrats also aren’t budging on the demand that ICE obtain judicial warrants for making arrests.
Growing impatient as the shutdown stretches on, several Republican senators have tried to start up negotiations with their Democratic counterparts, despite GOP leaders initially deferring to the White House to handle dealmaking with the minority party.
Democrats have largely rebuffed those entreaties, however, arguing such talks could result in giving ground to congressional Republicans only to then see the White House renege on commitments. Democrats are especially worried about being railroaded by Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff for policy and the architect of President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda.
“Things go back to the White House, and Stephen Miller, who’s an extremist, says ‘no,’” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) said in an interview.
Shaheen and other lawmakers have suggested it could be helpful for the White House to deputize a lead negotiator — but not Miller.
“Stephen Miller has a view that is outside of the American mainstream, and so it’s gonna be hard,” said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) in an interview. “If Susie Wiles were in charge of the discussion, that would be a different conversation.”
Wiles, who has served as White House chief of staff for more than a year, is involved in the talks, according to one senior White House official. But that official said talks toward a DHS funding deal are also led by Trump himself and a team headed by James Blair, White House deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs.
“There’s no blueprint to this,” the official said of the ongoing talks. “There’s multiple people working on it.”
In the days following the U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran, Republicans cited an increased risk of terrorist attacks in calling on Democrats to vote for restoring full DHS operations. But the argument did not shake loose any additional Democratic support, including on Thursday when Senate Majority Leader John Thune forced a procedural vote on the House-passed DHS funding bill.
A more tangible pressure point than a theoretical attack on U.S. soil could be further disruption to civilian air travel. The longer a shutdown goes on, the more disgruntled TSA agents will become, since they are forced to work without pay. TSA divulged this week that about 300 security screeners have quit since funding lapsed last month — and the workforce is poised to miss a full paycheck for the first time this shutdown.
In Denver, airport officials asked the public this week to donate $10 and $20 gift cards to help TSA agents pay for groceries and gas.
“When the pain goes from the poor TSA agents — who deserve to be paid, and whose families deserve to have them paid — when that pain gets translated to travelers, it gets worse,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said in an interview. “And that’s what we sure hope we can avoid in the next few days or week or two.”
While security lines grow longer at U.S. airports, news coverage of ICE and CBP agents detaining people in the interior of the country has declined.
“The further and further that we get away from January and the events that occurred in January, then the less and less leverage Democrats are going to have — and the more you may have issues at airports,” said a person close to the White House. “That’s going to put pressure on Democrats.”
At the same time, the Trump administration has stemmed the impact of the shutdown on most of the DHS workforce by bankrolling paychecks with money from the party-line tax and spending package Republicans enacted last summer. That includes pay for law enforcement officers at the Secret Service and active duty members of the Coast Guard.
DHS can also sustain work at ICE and CBP with the more than $100 billion Republicans delivered for those agencies within the party-line legislation last year.
“Democrats aren’t even shutting down what they have a problem with,” said another person close to the White House. “For the defenders of government workers and minorities, I think it’s wild that Democrats are withholding paychecks from TSA.”
Furthermore, Trump administration officials contend that the law does not allow funding from the GOP megabill to be used for TSA paychecks.
“Only way to get TSA paid is for Democrats to vote to reopen the government and not hold this key funding hostage,” said a senior administration official not authorized to speak publicly about interpretation of the law.
Stewart Verdery, who served as a DHS assistant secretary under former President George W. Bush, said he would be surprised if the Trump administration tried to find a way to pay TSA agents as the lapse drags on.
“TSA agents not getting paid is a very visible signal of the situation Democrats are creating,” Verdery said. “And I’m not sure why you’d want to solve it yourself.”
Beyond the Trump administration, congressional Republicans have also been unwilling to alleviate that pressure point by funding TSA and other DHS operations while leaving ICE and Customs and Border Protection hanging. Increasingly, Democrats are continuing to showcase that GOP resistance.
“If we can’t move forward funding the entire department, sitting down and negotiating in good faith — which you’ve had plenty of time to do already — we should be able to come together to pay the hardworking staff of one of its most essential components: TSA,” Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) said on the floor this week.
“Talk is easy,” she continued, questioning whether GOP senators would “back up what they say with their vote.” Republicans objected.
Eli Stokols contributed to this report.
Top Republican officials are increasingly accepting the House may already be lost as they shift to trying to limit the damage and salvage a Senate majority.
After waiting for weeks to see if the party’s deluge of money could help a raft of GOP incumbents who appeared to be in terrible shape in internal polling, more recent internal Republican polling still shows deep erosion in Trump country.
Now, Trump officials and Republican operatives say more candidates may have their funding from GOP campaign groups cut off in the coming days, before it’s too late to spend the money elsewhere to shore up other shaky races.
“I speak to a lot of people. There is no one who has privately stated that they believe Republicans can hold the House — not in recent weeks, anyway,” said former Rep. Carlos Curbelo, who lost in the last big House Democratic wave in 2018 after representing a South Florida swing district.
Five senior House Republicans, granted anonymity to candidly discuss their party’s precarious position, told Blue Light News the House has all but slipped from their grasp.
One of those Republicans compared the situation to Democrats’ 2006 flip of the House — specifically noting that potential Senate seat flips in North Carolina and Ohio could have downballot effects, while House candidates in redrawn red states like Florida and Texas are “hanging on with their fingernails.”
President Donald Trump’s political operation and the top House GOP super PAC have been cutting off ad spending across the map in races they feel are no longer winnable or worth the money, including for Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Tom Kean Jr.
And some national operatives are already starting to point fingers over who’s to blame, arguing that surprisingly-competitive Senate races are sucking away donor attention — therefore forcing House operatives into tough spending decisions.
White House officials insist they’re not giving up on the House, and that moves by the president and his team to shift the allocation of resources shouldn’t be seen as them prioritizing one chamber over another.
“The cutting of resources should not dictate what the philosophy is or what the outlook is for the overall race at large,” a senior White House official said. “It’s not doom and gloom around here. Everyone’s very positive, upbeat.”
But on the ground, Republicans seem to be giving up hope for any saving grace from the president in the final stretch.
“President Trump has made this election all about himself,” a second senior House Republican said in an interview. “Now we have to survive that political storm.”
What else we’re watching:
— WATERS, CASTEN FACE OFF ROILS DEMS: House Democrats are poised to face a polarizing choice on the other side of the midterm elections: Shove aside one of the most prominent Black progressives in their party in favor of a middle-aged White guy with similar policy views, or hand one of the most powerful gavels in Congress back to a nearly 90-year-old as their base clamors for generational change. That fight between Rep. Sean Casten, 54, and Maxine Waters, 88, to be Financial Services’ top Democrat also threatens to derail the party’s unity as members race to take back control of the chamber.
— GOP’S TAX CUT DATA DELAYED: The Trump administration is delaying the release of detailed data showing how Republicans’ 2025 tax cuts affected millions of Americans’ taxes, even as it tries to tout the law ahead of the midterms. The data — which is expected to provide the first detailed look at taxpayers taking advantage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, including new deductions for overtime wages and tipped income — was scheduled to be released in July and updated in September. But the IRS said it’s awaiting approval to publish the figures. The delay has already irked some who complain it is part of a pattern of the administration withholding otherwise routine releases of tax data.
Meredith Lee Hill, Andrew Howard, Mia McCarthy, Jasper Goodman, Katherine Hapgood, Riley Rogerson and Brian Faler contributed to this report.
Adam Hamilton raised $10.6 million in the third quarter of 2026 across his Senate campaign and his joint fundraising committees, his campaign tells Blue Light News, a significant haul for the Kansas Democrat.
The fundraising total illustrates Democrats’ newfound bullishness about flipping a Senate seat in the deep-red state for the first time since 1932.
“This grassroots support sends a clear message: with three weeks until Election Day, Adam Hamilton is building the momentum to win,” said Hamilton campaign spokesperson Tyson Brody.
Hamilton’s third-quarter figure is nearly triple his $3.66 million second-quarter total. His campaign did not provide a current cash-on-hand total.
National Democrats began pumping money into Kansas in recent days, a sign of their growing hopes that Hamilton could win. Last week, Senate Majority PAC — Senate Democrats’ top super PAC — reserved $5 million in television ads backing Hamilton. American Bridge PAC and Lower Costs Now, a new group affiliated with former Vice President Kamala Harris’ super PAC, have spent in Kansas in recent weeks.
Republicans have also flocked to Kansas to prop up Marshall: Senate Leadership Fund, the Senate GOP’s top PAC, has spent or reserved nearly $11 million backing Marshall in the past week, according to tracking firm AdImpact.
“It took us five months to raise $15 million. [Marshall] got it in a day,” Hamilton said at a campaign event in Lawrence, Kansas on Monday. “So please help us.”
Marshall’s campaign has yet to release his third-quarter fundraising totals. As of mid-July, Marshall had over $5 million in the bank to $1.73 million for Hamilton.
A bipartisan Senate duo is urging Trump national security officials to “bring its full capacities to bear” to stave off threats posed by artificial intelligence — sooner rather than later.
Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, and Republican South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, who serves on the Senate Armed Services cybersecurity subcommittee, are calling for a full government response to a growing number of cybersecurity breaches.
“Recent AI security incidents should serve as a warning,” the senators wrote in a Tuesday letter to Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton and White House Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios. “Advanced AI agents have escaped testing environments, bypassed safeguards, and gained unauthorized access to real-world systems owned by government agencies and private organizations.”
Spokespeople for Clayton and Kratsios did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Their letter comes as lawmakers struggle to hash out what legislation on AI safety, if any, might look like. Members are currently in recess ahead of the November elections and there’s little hope progress can be made by the year’s end.
But those lawmakers who have been engaged on the topic for years now have mapped out administrative actions the Trump administration could move on now, without waiting on Congress.
The Cantwell and Rounds priorities include: strengthening federal AI safety and security standards at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST; expanding independent testing capabilities at the Center for Advancing Innovation and Standards for Super Intelligence, Department of Energy and the national labs; and working with the tech industry to develop and deploy defensive AI tools.
Specifically, the senators wrote, new NIST standards should address the risks posed by advanced AI capabilities, including the “potential misuse by malicious actors” to conduct sophisticated cyberattacks, automate attacks at scale and agents that threaten external systems and critical infrastructure.
They also said the federal government capacity should be complemented by universities and other research organizations, as well as by private sector, third-party evaluators.
Finally, they point to ways the government could use existing programs at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to work with AI labs to help detect threats and reinforce vulnerable systems.
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