{"id":21300,"date":"2026-04-14T12:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T12:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-gop-leaders-plot-quick-end-to-dhs-shutdown\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T12:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T12:02:11","slug":"capitol-agenda-gop-leaders-plot-quick-end-to-dhs-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-gop-leaders-plot-quick-end-to-dhs-shutdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol Agenda: GOP leaders plot quick end to DHS shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Department of Homeland Security has been shut down for 59 days. GOP leaders are meeting Tuesday hoping to hash<\/a> out next steps for a funding plan to quickly end it.<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson will get together for their weekly meeting as Republicans stare down President Donald Trump\u2019s June 1 deadline to pass a party-line reconciliation bill that would restore lapsed DHS dollars for immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n

Thune said Monday he would pursue an \u201canorexic\u201d measure narrowly focused on Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. Republicans hope that path will allow them to bypass Democrats while skipping months of agonizing infighting \u2014 as they endured before enacting last year\u2019s tax-cuts-focused megabill.<\/p>\n

But Thune is having a hard time getting unanimous buy-in from his own conference.<\/p>\n

Sen. Rick Scott insisted Monday on spending cuts to offset new enforcement funding. Sen. Tommy Tuberville said he wants to include money for the military and other GOP priorities. And Sen. John Kennedy argued parts of a hot-button GOP elections bill should be in the mix.<\/p>\n

Things will be even tougher across the Capitol, where some in the House\u2019s right flank are insisting Republicans fund all of DHS through the filibuster-skirting reconciliation process \u2014 not just ICE and Border Patrol.<\/p>\n

Rep. Chip Roy, a ringleader inside the band of conservatives threatening the GOP leadership\u2019s plan, chided Thune\u2019s \u201cvery skinny\u201d vision for the immigration funding bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell – he isn\u2019t the only voice in this, is he?\u201d Roy wrote on X<\/u><\/a>. \u201cWe should move other priorities with ALL of DHS\u2026 we\u2019re running out of time to deliver and to clean up these repeated swamp messes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Republican leaders are planning to move forward quickly nonetheless. Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham could release a fiscal blueprint for the reconciliation bill Thune outlined as soon as Tuesday. Graham is also expected to skip a committee vote on that blueprint, according to three people granted anonymity to describe private planning, and instead bring the budget resolution straight to the floor as soon as next week.<\/p>\n

Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins said her committee has been giving \u201ctechnical assistance\u201d to Graham\u2019s panel while lamenting the breakdown in the regular-order appropriations process.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt obviously would have been better if we came up with a bipartisan compromise,\u201d she told reporters Monday.<\/p>\n

What else we\u2019re watching:\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u2014 Clock ticking on spy powers: <\/b>House GOP leaders are forging ahead with plans to pass a \u201cclean,\u201d 18 month extension of government spy powers due to expire next week. House Rules will meet Tuesday to pave the way for floor consideration of a bill to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, but it’s unclear if Johnson has support for the next procedural vote on the floor.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/b> Political exit plan calculus: <\/b>Leaders of both parties will be watching carefully for exact exit plans from Reps. Eric Swalwell<\/b> and Tony Gonzales<\/b> after the lawmakers announced resignations within an hour of each other Monday amid sexual misconduct allegations. Gonzales said he would formally resign Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u2014 War powers to fail\u2014for now: <\/b>Senate Republicans are unlikely to shore up the support to help Democrats adopt a resolution as soon as Wednesday that would put limits on Trump\u2019s military operation in the Middle East. But some could change their minds in a few weeks when the conflict reaches the 60 day mark.<\/p>\n

Jordain Carney contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Department of Homeland Security has been shut down for 59 days. GOP leaders are meeting Tuesday hoping to hash out next steps for a funding plan to quickly end it. Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson will get together for their weekly meeting as Republicans stare down President Donald Trump\u2019s June […]<\/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-21300","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\/21300","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=21300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}