{"id":20444,"date":"2026-03-23T12:02:46","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T12:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-trump-muddies-dhs-talks\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T12:02:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T12:02:46","slug":"capitol-agenda-trump-muddies-dhs-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-trump-muddies-dhs-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: Trump muddies DHS talks"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It\u2019s crunch time for talks to reopen the Department of Homeland Security \u2014 and President Donald Trump is making things messier.<\/p>\n

The House and Senate are scheduled to leave in a few days for a two-week recess. If they go home with no deal, the DHS funding lapse could end up lasting at least two months and break a new record for the longest shutdown of a federal agency. Now Trump is saying he doesn\u2019t even want a deal<\/a> if the Senate doesn\u2019t pass the SAVE America Act.<\/p>\n

Despite Trump\u2019s warning, the threat of a two-month shutdown is spurring an uptick<\/a> in what had been completely stalled negotiations. Starting Monday, the Trump administration plans to detail ICE agents<\/a> to airports to do jobs like guarding exits so TSA agents can focus on screening passengers and baggage.<\/p>\n

A bipartisan group of senators is aiming to meet Monday with border czar Tom Homan to continue talks, after the White House laid out an expanded offer<\/a> Friday that included changes to DHS immigration enforcement tactics.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see if they can land something,\u201d Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in an interview Sunday.<\/p>\n

But Trump made a deal somewhat more complicated Sunday night.<\/p>\n

When asked by NewsNation about whether Congress should just fund TSA while negotiating the rest of DHS, he said<\/a> \u201cI don\u2019t think any deal should be made on this until they approve SAVE America.\u201d He then said on Truth Social, \u201cI don\u2019t think we should make any deal with the Crazy, Country Destroying, Radical Left Democrats unless, and until, they Vote with Republicans to pass \u2018THE SAVE AMERICA ACT.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

What does it mean? Trump\u2019s missive reflects where some Republicans already believed he was privately \u2014 in no mood to accept a DHS deal unless the elections bill is also passed. But negotiators and members of leadership are still hoping there can be a deal.<\/p>\n

Trump is also opposed to breaking up DHS funding, including a plan proposed by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), John Kennedy (R-La.) and other conservatives to fund most of DHS now through a bipartisan deal and then let Republicans separately fund ICE and CBP through budget reconciliation, two people granted anonymity to disclose private discussions told Blue Light News. Thune on Sunday didn\u2019t close the door to the idea and noted it was one of several under discussion, though he\u2019s urging Democrats to fund all of DHS.<\/p>\n

Despite the movement in negotiations, it\u2019s still looking likely that the DHS shutdown will be record-breaking. While the Senate is considering staying in session if the shutdown isn\u2019t resolved, House GOP leaders do not plan to cut their break short, according to three people granted anonymity to discuss private planning. The House will likely vote again on DHS funding on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Also for your radar: Senate Democrats will force at least one Iran war powers vote this week and House Democrats are hoping to do the same. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) told reporters this weekend that it\u2019s time for Congress to consider a formal authorization for use of military force and that she\u2019s been working with Republicans on what an AUMF might look like.<\/p>\n

What else we\u2019re watching: <\/i><\/b>The Senate returns at 3 p.m. to finish debate on Sen. Markwayne Mullin\u2019s (R-Okla.) nomination to be DHS secretary. Mullin is expected to be confirmed as soon as Monday night after Democratic Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico joined most Republicans Sunday<\/u><\/a> to advance him.<\/p>\n

Jennifer Scholtes, Jordain Carney, Katherine Tully-McManus and Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report. <\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s crunch time for talks to reopen the Department of Homeland Security \u2014 and President Donald Trump is making things messier. The House and Senate are scheduled to leave in a few days for a two-week recess. If they go home with no deal, the DHS funding lapse could end up lasting at least two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20444\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}