WASHINGTON – A bipartisan group of senators met behind closed doors Thursday with White House border czar Tom Homan, a small sign of progress as lawmakers look to end a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security that began more than a month ago.
Funding for the department lapsed on Feb. 14 as Democrats refused to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Customs and Border Protection without changes to their operations in the wake of the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis.
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Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., said the next step in resolving the impasse will be another White House counteroffer, then lawmakers will regroup. Other senators in the meeting included top appropriators on both sides of the political aisle. They indicated the two sides are still far apart, but at least they are talking.
The talks come at a time of growing strain at the nation's airports, where some are reporting long lines at screening stations because Transportation Security Administration agents working without pay are calling out sick. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the problem is likely to get worse next week without a resolution.
“The AIRPORT LINES you’re seeing now are CHILD’S PLAY compared to what you will see next week if TSA misses another PAYCHECK!” Duffy said in a social media post on X.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he viewed Thursday's meeting as an important step.
“We've been encouraging this for a while, and glad to see both sides sit down,” Thune said. “Having Homan up here being a part of that is, I think, a pretty big deal and a recognition that we need to get this resolved.”
Both chambers of Congress are scheduled to be out of Washington the first two weeks of April, and Thune warned that those plans will be in jeopardy if the shutdown is not resolved by the end of next week.
“I can't see us taking a break if the government is still shut down,” Thune said.
Key lawmakers say challenges remain
Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, had said recently that the White House needed to be directly involved in the talks for progress to occur.
“I'm glad the White House is here, but we're still a long ways apart,” the Washington state lawmaker said as she exited the meeting.
Sen. Susan Collins, the Republican chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Democratic demands were making negotiations difficult.
“Unfortunately, the Democrats' list of demands keeps growing and growing,” the Maine lawmaker said. “But the group that was in there is operating in good faith, and I hope we'll get together again very soon.”
Democrats have demanded an array of policy changes that include requiring ICE agents to get a warrant from a judge before forcefully entering homes, requiring clear identifying information on uniforms and the removal of masks, mandating the use of body-worn cameras, allowing independent investigations into misconduct and prohibiting operations at sensitive locations like schools, churches and polling places.
Thousands working without pay
The vast majority of Homeland Security workers are considered essential and continue to work during a shutdown. But more than 120,000 of them are working without pay. And that follows last fall's 43-day shutdown, during which some federal workers went to food banks to make ends meet.
Democrats made another attempt Thursday to fund most of the agencies within Homeland Security, but not ICE and CBP. Republicans blocked the measure, insisting that the department not be funded piecemeal.
Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, argued that lawmakers aren't that close to a deal on ICE, so it should fund TSA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Coast Guard, among others.
“All we are asking is release the hostages,” Schatz said.
Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., said the better course is to reach a compromise on ICE.
“We're not going to just defund ICE and never turn it back on, so ICE agents quit because they're not getting paid and it just drags on for a long time,” Lankford said. “We need to actually resolve the differences.”
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Associated Press staff writer Joey Cappelletti contributed to this report.