Gala assassination attempt fails to break the DHS shutdown as GOP infighting continues

After an armed gunman tried to breach the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Saturday, there’s more pressure than ever to end the 75-day shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security.

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Yet even President Donald Trump’s calls to pass the funding bill are running into GOP excuses, bipartisan complications and personal feuds.

A stalemate that started with a fight over masked immigration enforcement agents has shifted to vague complaints about technical difficulties, pitches for military and farm-bailout money, and growing tension between House and Senate GOP leaders.

The latest complicating factor? A pitch to provide $400 million in taxpayer funds for Trump’s East Wing ballroom.

The House’s work on Homeland Security funding became increasingly bogged down this week, with GOP leaders struggling to garner support for a rule to set up floor consideration of a budget resolution — a procedural step that clears the path for a Republican-only bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. 

Democrats offered an amendment to set up a swift vote in the House on the Senate-passed DHS funding bill. But the Rules Committee rejected the proposal in a 5-8 vote, despite support from Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y.

The broader rule, bundled with measures on surveillance authorities and a farm bill, was narrowly adopted, 216-210, after GOP leaders held the vote open for hours and flipped some key votes. But even as House Republicans inched forward on a plan to fund ICE and CBP, a broader plan for DHS funding has faltered.

The holdup on the budget resolution wouldn’t have prolonged the DHS shutdown were it not for a broken promise by Speaker Mike Johnson. The Louisiana Republican announced on April 1 that his chamber would vote on a Senate-passed measure to end the shutdown. The bipartisan bill would fund DHS, excluding funds for ICE and CBP, which already have billions available from last year’s GOP reconciliation law.

That plan didn’t work, however. 

As Johnson cajoled Republicans to support the DHS funding measure, hard-line conservatives held out, saying they wanted assurances that Republicans would follow through on the “reconciliation 2.0” bill to provide three years’ worth of extra funds for ICE and CBP.

That proposal stalled as conservatives held out for yet another “reconciliation 3.0” bill that could include a range of conservative proposals, including the Republican voter ID proposal, billions of dollars to pay for the war with Iran and aid to help struggling farmers.

The House’s tangled string of policy proposals — all holding up an urgent bill to fund the Secret Service, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Transportation Security Administration and other agencies — has left Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., shrugging.

“My question is, what was the alternative?” Thune said of the now-abandoned April 1 agreement with Johnson. “And that’s what I said to them at the time. I mean, tell me, give me a better option, because I’m open to ideas.”

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The latest snag in the House: Johnson told Thune there’s “a technical issue” with the Senate’s bill, which members passed on March 27, Thune told reporters. Neither Republican leader has said what the problem is, and Thune said it doesn’t change the outlook.

“In the end, it’s the same issue,” Thune said Tuesday. “We’ve got to fund all the agencies. They’ve got a bill over there that does that.”

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said she was unaware of any legitimate technical issues with the Senate-passed DHS funding bill.