Republicans in the upper chamber are ramping up the pressure on Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to swiftly approve a Senate-passed bill to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), arguing that tens of thousands of federal workers could miss paychecks next month if the House delays much longer.<\/p>\n
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) says Senate passage of a budget resolution<\/a> early Thursday morning shows he has the votes to pass a budget reconciliation package next month to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol.<\/p>\n He believes that should give the House the green light to approve the Senate-passed bill to fund the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.<\/p>\n Johnson, under pressure from Republicans<\/a> in the hard-line conservative House Freedom Caucus and beyond, has said he won\u2019t move the bipartisan DHS bill until after passage of the reconciliation package<\/a>.<\/p>\n But GOP senators fear that plan leaves a good chance that Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin could run out of money<\/a> to pay TSA agents and other critical federal workers.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s certainly the hope and expectation,\u201d Thune said when asked about the prospect of the House moving quickly on the Senate-passed Homeland Security funding bill now that the Senate has passed a budget resolution, taking a major step toward unlocking the special reconciliation process that will allow GOP senators to avoid a Democratic filibuster.<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems like that should help answer the question they\u2019ve had\u201d about whether the Senate would be able to deliver a budget reconciliation bill to the House to fund ICE and Border Patrol through 2029, Thune said.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m hoping that now having produced a reconciliation bill they can perhaps get over that hurdle and fund the other agencies because they\u2019re running out of money, and Markwayne\u2019s made that very clear,\u201d Thune said.<\/p>\n The Senate GOP leader said the Department of Homeland Security doesn\u2019t have enough money to keep paying federal workers for the amount of time it will take the Senate to pass the budget reconciliation bill.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom a timing standpoint, they run out of money I think before we\u2019re going to be able to get the reconciliation bill across the floor. But I think having produced the budget resolution to me should serve as a signal to anybody over [in the House] that\u2019s concerned about that, that we\u2019re going to be following through with ensuring that the [ICE and Border Patrol] money for the future is available,\u201d Thune said.<\/p>\n DHS has been shut down for more than two months, but President Trump earlier this month ordered that essential workers be paid. Mullin warned Tuesday that the department has access to enough money to pay workers for only one more pay period.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve got one payroll left and there is no more emergency funds, so the president can\u2019t do another executive order because there\u2019s no more money there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n One Republican senator who requested anonymity to comment on frustration within the Senate GOP over the failure to advance the Senate-passed Homeland Security appropriations bill in the lower chamber said Johnson doesn\u2019t have full control of the House GOP conference.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think Johnson has the votes,\u201d said the GOP lawmaker, who asserted that the Speaker has shifted his criteria for acting on the partial Homeland Security funding bill.<\/p>\n \u201cThere continues to be a delay game. First it was Johnson said we want to see you pass the budget resolution. Now it sounds like, \u2018We want to pass the whole reconciliation [package],\u2019\u201d the senator added. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n Johnson initially called the Senate\u2019s plan to separate funding for ICE and Border Patrol from the rest of DHS a \u201cjoke\u201d and refused to put it on the floor. A week later, after Trump endorsed the plan, Johnson released a statement with Thune backing it. That, in turn, drew widespread ire<\/a> in the Republican conference, including on an hours-long conference call during which conservatives seethed over the change.<\/p>\n The Speaker this week again insisted on moving reconciliation before passing the bipartisan Senate bill.<\/p>\n Senate Republicans had hoped that Trump would play a more forceful role in urging Johnson to immediately vote on the appropriations bill to fund TSA, Coast Guard and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, and some feel disappointed he hasn\u2019t done more to help. <\/p>\n Trump has been more focused on reaching a deal with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world\u2019s oil supplies normally travel to reach markets.<\/p>\n Senators voted Thursday to instruct the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Homeland Security Committee to begin drafting a bill that would spend between $70 billion and $80 billion over three and a half years on ICE and Border Patrol.<\/p>\n Each committee received an instruction to produce legislation not costing more than $70 billion and could produce combined legislation spending as much as $140 billion, but they are expected to come well below that number.<\/p>\n