Congress faces a Friday deadline to avert a shutdown of Homeland Security and with it FEMA, TSA and the Coast Guard, amid a bitter partisan fight over immigration enforcement. KHJ News Washington DC correspondent Matt Kaye reports…
DHS and its subagencies were given a two-week funding lifeline until Friday so the two parties could negotiate safeguards after two Minnesota deaths amid ICE and CBP enforcement operations.
The two parties are nowhere near and agreement on those guardrails. Democrats are demanding agents getting rid of masks, wear IDs and obtain judicial, not administrative warrants.
Republicans insist most of the demands are “non-starters.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune is proposing another DHS funding stopgap to buy more time to negotiate, but Democrats have vowed not to support another extension.
Thune argued last week the original one wasn’t enough…
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Thune “…a two-week continuing resolution, which I had argued at the time was way too short to allow anything consequential to happen, when it comes to resolving the issues around DHS. But that being said, the Democrats insisted on it.”
A DHS shutdown could have far reaching implications, including for American Samoa, bringing federal agencies within the department to a halt.
Among them, the Transportation Security Administration, FEMA, and the Coast Guard.
While essential personnel would have to work, services could still be curtailed.
Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata responded in a written statement that essential services will continue just like in a broader shutdown. But it can also result in “airport delays.”
Amata says a funding extension makes more sense and secures pay for the “hardworking personnel in these agencies.”
The Hill newspaper reports that several leading Democrats propose funding that would keep non-immigration parts of the government running while splitting off negotiations over ICE and CBP.
But other Democrats want to keep pressure on Republicans to accept their terms and the Hill reports senators on both sides of the aisle didn’t seem optimistic about avoiding a funding lapse heading into the weekend.
A House panel on DHS funding planned to meet midweek to discuss the potential effects if funding lapses. Officials from FEMA, the Coast Guard, TSA and other affected agencies are listed as witnesses.
