What happened
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said on Monday that a Senate bill to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security contains “problematic language,” and House Republicans “have a modified version” that would be “much better for both chambers.” Any changes to the bill, which the Senate twice passed unanimously a month ago, would prolong the record 73-day DHS shutdown.
Who said what
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters that anything other than a “technical fix” in the House would be a “real problem.” A group of House Republicans is pushing to strip “language that ‘zeroes out’ funding for ICE and Border Patrol,” seeking to avoid “taking a vote seen as defunding law enforcement,” Axios said. “Frustration is running high among Senate Republicans over Johnson’s failure” to get his party in line. There’s also “growing animosity from rank-and-file Republicans that a handful of conservatives are dictating the process,” CNN said.
What next?
DHS funding is one of a “slew of contentious votes” Republicans face this week, along with spy powers legislation “that conservative privacy hawks detest and a massive farm bill that’s angered the MAHA bloc of the GOP,” CNN said.
The agency has been shut down for an unprecedented 73 days