Senate DHS funding deal collapses in House
Republicans send back a bill that can't pass the Senate
Also in today’s special Saturday edition of ‘Regular Order’ for March 28, 2026:
Who knows how long the DHS shutdown will go on.
Another veteran House Republican backs away from a reelection bid.
25 guilty verdicts for Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL).
DHS FUNDING. It seemed like Congress had finally figured out some kind of middle ground. After six weeks of a funding impasse at the Department of Homeland Security, Senators unanimously came together early on Friday morning to end that shutdown. And then, Republicans in the House blew up that Senate deal - most likely extending this political battle into April.
DHS DETOUR. Instead of approving the Senate-passed bill, Republicans in the House last night muscled through a 60-day temporary funding plan for the Department of Homeland Security. The vote was 213 to 203. No GOP lawmakers broke ranks, while 3 Democrats voted in favor of the plan.
DEM TRIO. The three ‘Yes’ votes by Democrats were not a surprise. Rep. Don Davis (D-NC), Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA), and Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX). They are among the most conservative Democrats in the U.S. House.
SPEAKER. The vote was yet another tight win for House Speaker Mike Johnson who loudly rallied GOP lawmakers against the Senate’s funding bill. “The Republicans are not going to be a party to this,” declared the Speaker, who made it sound like Democrats were in charge of the Senate.
FUNDING. What was the problem with that bill for House GOP leaders? The Senate plan did not include new funding for ICE and the Border Patrol - forcing those agencies to instead use money already approved last year under the ‘Big, Beautiful Bill.’
PAYCHECKS. “The employees and the Department of Homeland Security have gone without funding and without paychecks for 42 days,” added Johnson, who called the Senate bill a ‘joke.’
SHUTDOWN. But the approval of a different plan was not a joke. The House GOP bill - which would extend funding through May 22 - has no chance of being approved right now in the Senate. It means that this shutdown will continue, with most workers at DHS not getting paid. For how long? No one knows. The Senate isn’t scheduled to return for votes until the week of April 13.
MISTAKE. Democrats were furious. “What the hell are you guys doing?” said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA). “This is insane." “Vote no on this partisan, political stunt,” said House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
VOTES. But with no GOP defectors, Democrats could only stand and watch as Republicans prevailed. The bill now goes back to the Senate, as both parties bitterly blamed the other for the election year funding impasse.
BACKUP. How much funding does ICE have in the bank? Can ICE afford not to get any money in this funding spat? Their budget is about $10 billion per year. ICE got about $75 billion in the Big, Beautiful Bill. The agency isn’t running out of cash anytime soon. But House Republicans said that Senate plan was unacceptable.
ICE REFORMS. It was interesting to hear Republicans loudly claim that the Senate DHS bill favored Democrats, when it didn’t do anything about reforms at ICE that had been demanded by Democrats. Remember, that’s the genesis of this impasse - ICE changes after the killing of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis by immigration agents.
PROBLEM SOLVERS. “This whole debate was supposed to be about reforming ICE, and yet not a single offer, not a single bill we’re voting on has a single ICE reform,” said Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), who joined with Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) to call for a bipartisan deal.
COMPROMISE. “Americans are demanding two very important things,” said Suozzi, as the two members of the Problem Solvers group spoke in the old House chamber. “Fully fund the government and reform ICE. We need to do both,” said Suozzi, who took heat earlier this year for voting to fund ICE.
ICE CHANGES. But the White House has refused to sign onto any of the proposals made by Democrats, whether it’s blocking ICE agents from wearing masks, or requiring court warrants when agents enter a private home or business. That’s why no ICE reforms were part of the Senate-passed deal on Thursday night.
TOO HOT TO HANDLE. Frankly, very few lawmakers are willing to do what Fitzpatrick and Suozzi are calling for. Most Democrats want no part of funding ICE operations. Most Republicans want no part of reining in ICE agents. And there is very little middle ground.
NO PAY. While President Trump’s unilateral move to pay TSA airport screeners will help with the shutdown, there are thousands of other workers at FEMA, TSA, the Coast Guard, and inside DHS who will continue to get no paychecks. And after last night’s House vote - no one’s quite sure how long this will continue.
HOUSE VS SENATE. This dispute was also another reminder that the biggest rivalry in Congress isn’t Democrat versus Republican. It’s House versus Senate. Most people outside of Capitol Hill probably can’t grasp how there is no love lost between the two bodies, and that was apparent on Friday as House Republicans savaged their GOP colleagues in the Senate.
CIRCULAR FIRING SQUAD. “The Senate was a clown show at 3 am last night,” said Rep. Michael Baumgartner (R-WA). “The Senate should terminate the filibuster and start delivering real wins for the American people,” added Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ), as House Republicans are also mad about the lack of action on the SAVE America bill.
RULES. If there is one thing that really gets under the skin of Senators, it is House members telling the Senate how its procedures or rules need to change. No one is ending the filibuster at this time in the Senate - but that’s on the tongue of many House Republicans.
ETHICS. Friday was not a good day for workers at the Department of Homeland Security, and it was not a good day for Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL). A day after the Florida Democrat went before the House Ethics Committee, that panel found her guilty of 25 ethics violations.
$5 MILLION. The investigation centers around charges that her family’s healthcare services company wrongly kept $5 million in mistaken government payments for a COVID vaccination contract with the state of Florida.
NEXT MONTH. “Shortly after the House returns from the April recess, the full Committee will hold a hearing to determine what, if any, sanction would be appropriate,” the Ethics Committee said in a written statement.
COMMITTEE. The vibe from the committee members on Thursday night was not good for the Florida Democrat, who was repeatedly accused of not cooperating with the ethics inquiry. Cherfilus-McCormick did not testify this week - she’ll have one more chance at the next hearing.
RESIGN OR ELSE. It didn’t take long for a fellow Democrat to call on Cherfilus-McCormick to leave the House. “Since she was found guilty, she should resign or be removed,” said Rep. Marie Glusenkamp Perez (D-WA), as Republicans promised to pursue an expulsion vote after the committee finishes its work.
CASUALTY LIST. Another veteran Republican in the House has decided not to run for reelection this year. Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO), who chairs the House Transportation Committee had originally filed to run - but changed his mind.
SHOW ME STATE. “I believe in making room for the next generation,” Graves said in a statement. “It’s time to pass the torch and allow a new guard of conservative leaders to step forward.”
NUMBERS. The decision means that 58 House members won’t be coming back to the House after the 2026 election. 28 are retiring. Another 28 are running for a different office. And two others have been defeated in primaries. Of the 58 departures, it is 37 Republicans and 21 Democrats.
CHAIRMAN. The decision by Graves is also important on another level. He is the chairman of a major House committee. You usually don’t give up a position like that if you think your party is going to stay in the House majority.
CENTENNIAL. Veteran Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) almost had her reelection plans run aground last night in district caucuses in Colorado. DeGette managed to get just over 30 percent of the vote in order to qualify for the primary ballot. First elected in 1996, DeGette could have two serious primary challengers in June.
MUSE OF HISTORY. March 28, 1861. 15 days before shots were fired at Fort Sumter in South Carolina, the Senate adjourned a special session designed to set up the Cabinet and administration of President Lincoln. On this date, Sen. Lyman Trumbull of Illinois submitted this resolution, which said the resistance to federal laws is ‘encouragement to disunion.’ The Civil War was almost upon the United States.
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM:
The next votes in the House are TBD.
The Senate is scheduled to return for votes on April 13.
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Granted, the sheer volume of antics this week in DC has probably dulled my senses, but for the life of me I can’t figure out why the House decided to blow up the deal struck to reopen the government. Especially when funding was already in place for DHS via BBB.
And Mr. Dupree is quite correct — Speaker Johnson’s temper tantrum made it sound like the Dems were in control of the Senate and not his own party.
How is intentionally continuing to screw over Americans currently not receiving paychecks a winning message for MAGA this fall? I just don’t get it.
" “What the hell are you guys doing?” said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA)." Truer words about our congress has never been spoken.