Don't cave.......

Top Senate Republicans coalesce behind plan to end DHS shutdown

By Sarah Ferris, Morgan Rimmer, Ted Barrett, Alison Main

Top Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill believe their party is unified behind a plan to reopen the Department of Homeland Security. Now, they need to sell the plan to Democrats.

Republican lawmakers emerged from a White House meeting on Monday night with a plan to fund DHS — all except a small portion of the immigration enforcement budget, in a concession to Democrats. Then, once that’s passed, Republicans plan to muscle through a partisan bill without Democratic votes to fund the rest of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency — as well as new policies in President Donald Trump’s long-sought voter ID bill.

That plan, which was described to CNN by a person familiar with the talks, has not yet been accepted by Democrats. But key Democrats said they were pleased with the direction, even without knowing all of the details. And the top Senate GOP spending leader, Sen. Susan Collins, told reporters she was “optimistic we’re on a good track.” While Trump had previously rejected a similar idea, Republicans now feel the president is on board, that person and another source familiar said.

A White House official expressed optimism in a statement to CNN on Tuesday, saying, “Conversations are ongoing but this deal seems to be acceptable.”

Trump has in recent days said that he does not want to make a deal on DHS funding unless Democrats back the voter ID bill known as the “SAVE America Act” – despite the fact that supporting the bill is a nonstarter for Democrats.

Trump was presented Sunday with a proposal to fund every part of the department except enforcement operations by ICE, two sources familiar with the conversations told CNN, but Trump rejected the idea as he took to Truth Social to attack Democrats for not backing the voter ID bill.

If Senate Democrats do agree, it could put Congress on a path to ending the nearly 40-day shutdown of DHS that has left federal workers, like TSA officers, without pay. The funding deal would still need to go to the House, where GOP leaders would need to navigate a tight majority. Then Republicans would face an arduous few weeks crafting another major immigration bill — with both ICE funding and pieces of Trump’s contentious voter ID bill — all just months before a critical midterm election.

Sen. Chris Murphy, a senior Democrat, said he believed funding DHS without that money for ICE enforcement would be the “easiest way” forward.

“Let’s keep working on ICE [reforms] and let’s open everything else up,” Murphy said. “As I leave tonight, that still seems like the most likely path this week.”

“I don’t know the details, but I really like the direction we’re heading. Okay? Good to get this resolved,” Democratic Sen. Peter Welch told CNN about the emerging deal on DHS.

He said Democrats have already made significant strides by helping to force former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem out of a job as well as other changes.

“The fact is, we’ve made significant progress. Noem is gone. That’s a big deal. She was reckless, lawless, corrupt. That’s big progress. Number two, ICE is out of Minneapolis. We owe that basically, to the brave citizens in Minneapolis who, in the face of enormous violence, stood up to protect their neighbors. And then you’re seeing out of the White House an acknowledgement that this mass roundup policy is way over the top.”

The Democrats’ top spending leader, Sen. Patty Murray, declined to speak on the potential deal, saying only: “I want to see the language.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, leaving the Capitol Monday night, would only say “both sides are talking in a serious way.”

Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats, told reporters that he needs to see precise details before agreeing to a deal. But his understanding of the deal, he said, is that it would fully fund DHS except for a specific branch of ICE called Enforcement and Removal Operations.

“I want to see exactly what that means and how its language is, and there may be some negotiation on exactly how to define that,” King said, adding that he wants to “see the actual proposal” in writing.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune was upbeat but cautious as he came off the Senate floor about the possibility of getting a deal to soon to end the shutdown. He said he “feels good” about the emerging agreement but said he’s a bit of a “naysayer” until everything is nailed down.

“All I can say is that the discussions have been very positive and productive and I hopefully headed in the right direction.”

GOP Sen. Katie Britt said, “I am going to be working through the night so hopefully we can figure out how to land this plane.”