GOP move to Fund DHS 'the Hard Way'    04/15 06:07

   

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans in Congress are forging ahead with a risky 
go-it-alone strategy for fully funding the Department of Homeland Security, 
which has been shut down for almost two months as Democrats demand changes to 
President Donald Trump's broad campaign of immigration enforcement.

   Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Tuesday that Republicans will try to 
pass the money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border 
Protection " the hard way." That means bypassing Democrats, who say a funding 
bill should place restraints on federal immigration authorities, including 
better identification for federal officers and more use of judicial warrants.

   Democrats will now get "none of that," Thune said, after bipartisan 
negotiations stalled. Republicans are instead preparing a partisan bill that 
they will try to pass under a complicated, time-consuming maneuver called 
budget reconciliation that only requires a simple majority vote in the 53-47 
Senate.

   The process could be messy. Thune, R-S.D., is pushing for a narrow bill that 
would only include money for ICE and CBP in an effort to reopen the department 
quickly. But some of his Republican colleagues are likely to push to add other 
unrelated priorities.

   Democrats say they will continue to insist on reforms to the agencies.

   "Americans want ICE and Border Patrol reined in," Senate Democratic Leader 
Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said.

   Thune hopes for a 'narrow' bill

   Thune and GOP leaders have said they want to speed the legislation through 
Congress with only the Homeland Security funding so that the department can 
reopen as quickly as possible.

   Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the No. 2 Republican, and Senate Budget 
Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., discussed that strategy with Trump 
at a White House meeting Friday. Barrasso posted afterward that "President 
Trump set a deadline of June 1 to get to his desk a focused reconciliation bill 
that funds ICE and Border Patrol."

   Trump appeared to be on board, posting on his social media site that "we are 
moving FAST and FOCUSED in keeping our Border SECURE!"

   But it won't be easy to keep senators -- or the House -- from trying to add 
other items to the bill.

   Trump has been pushing his strict proof-of-citizenship bill, the SAVE Act, 
and the White House could soon request billions of dollars for the Iran war. 
Farm-state senators have been hoping to move a wide-ranging farm bill to boost 
the agricultural economy. And some Republicans say they should cut other 
programs to pay for the legislation, which could cost around $75 billion.

   Republican leaders say they would do a second partisan budget reconciliation 
bill to deal with some of those issues. But many in the conference are 
skeptical that could happen this year, especially with thin GOP margins in both 
chambers and an election approaching.

   "We're looking at the narrow vision," said GOP Sen. John Hoeven of North 
Dakota after Republicans held a lunch meeting about the bill Tuesday. "Now, do 
people have other ideas? Of course."

   Lengthy DHS shutdown has no clear end

   The Homeland Security Department has been shut down since mid-February.

   After federal agents shot two protesters in Minneapolis in January, Trump 
agreed to a Democratic request that the Homeland Security bill be separated 
from a larger spending measure that became law as the two sides negotiated. But 
the DHS funding lapsed with no agreement on changes to his administration's 
immigration enforcement tactics.

   In March, the Senate passed legislation by voice vote that would separate 
out ICE and Customs and Border Protection and fund the rest of the department, 
including the Transportation Security Administration as security lines grew 
long at some airports. But Republicans in the House refused to vote for it, 
saying they wouldn't support any bill that didn't include money for immigration 
enforcement.

   Congress then left town for a two-week recess, leaving the issue unresolved. 
Trump has used executive orders to pay some department salaries in the 
meantime, but that is not a permanent solution.

   During the recess, Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that they 
would pursue a two-track approach -- pass the Senate bill that includes most of 
the department's funding through regular order and use the party-line bill to 
pass ICE and CBP funding. But it remains unclear if Johnson will be able to 
persuade his members to go along with that approach.

   After returning to Washington this week, Thune said Republicans will try to 
use the budget bill to fund the agencies for three years, circumventing annual 
spending bills in an effort to prevent another shutdown during Trump's term.

   The agencies would be funded "not only today but well into the future," 
Thune said.