House conservatives are ripping into a Senate-passed deal that would end the 42-day Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown, citing concerns that the bill fails to fund President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The House Freedom Caucus said Friday it will withhold its support for the DHS funding measure until Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are given full-year appropriations. The conservative group also wants voter ID requirements added to the bill.
“We can’t believe that the Senate abdicated its responsibility this morning of not funding the child sex trafficking investigation division of ICE, that they didn’t fund the Border Patrol,” HFC chairman Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., told reporters. “The only thing we’re going to support is adding that funding into the bill, adding voter ID, sending it back to the Senate, make them come back in and do their work.”
“The bottom line is … this deal is bad for America,” Harris continued.
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The Senate-passed product provided funding for all of DHS minus ICE and parts of the Border Patrol, enraging some conservatives who viewed the agreement as a capitulation to Democrats.
“Republicans must also make sure this never happens again,” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital, adding that he opposed the funding deal.
The measure, however, did not include a bevy of immigration reforms demanded by Democrats — a notable win for Republicans. Scott and other Senate Republicans have teased a forthcoming budget package that would give an infusion to Trump’s immigration agenda.
The conservative opposition to the Senate’s spending agreement comes as House GOP leadership has also not committed to passing the funding measure.
“We just have the number one main objective to see that we can get the entire Department of Homeland Security properly funded,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told Fox News on Friday. “There’s a lot of threats out there.”
House Democrats, however, are indicating they will support the Senate’s DHS legislation.
“We support reopening the parts of the Department of Homeland Security that Donald Trump and Republicans recklessly shut down,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Friday. “We support paying TSA agents, and we support ending the chaos at airports.”
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House conservatives’ opposition complicates House GOP leadership’s path to steering the measure through the chamber.
A traditionally partisan “rule” vote teeing up the legislation for a vote on final passage would almost certainly fail if Democrats withhold their support. Meanwhile, House rules prohibit Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., from advancing the measure through a suspension vote — requiring a two-thirds majority — between Thursday and Sunday.
House conservatives are also voicing frustration that the SAVE America Act has stalled in the Senate due to bipartisan opposition from all Senate Democrats and a handful of moderate Republicans.
The Senate left Washington on Friday for the Easter recess rather than continue to debate the Trump-backed election integrity bill.
“We the House should AMEND the Senate bill, ADD VOTER ID AND FORCE A VOTE in the SENATE,” Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., wrote on social media Friday morning.
Senate Democrats notably filibustered a voter ID measure sponsored by Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, on Thursday.
Conservative GOP lawmakers have also argued that because Trump took executive action to fund beleaguered Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents on Thursday, delaying the passage of a DHS funding measure would not worsen air travel disruptions.
“The president has already said he’s going to fund TSA out of funds he has,” Harris said Friday. “It’s not going to affect the airports if we don’t do this today.