As White House officials and Senate Democrats scramble to nail down a last-minute deal to salvage a massive spending package, an internal GOP battle is brewing in the House over whether to accept any compromise.
At stake is whether a partial government shutdown set to kick off early Saturday morning would last just a few days or much longer. The House is in recess and currently not expected to reconvene until Monday.
GOP leaders expect President Donald Trump will have to lean heavily on House Republicans to get any Senate-approved agreement through the other chamber. Earlier this week, conservative hard-liners threatened to oppose the potential plan — suggesting a shutdown could drag on for weeks if leaders aren’t careful.
The Senate talks have revolved around splitting off Homeland Security funding from a larger six-bill package the House sent across the Capitol last week and passing a stopgap measure to keep DHS agencies open while additional strictures on immigration enforcement are negotiated.
A White House official granted anonymity to comment on the pending negotiations said Trump “wants the government to remain open” and confirmed the administration is “working with both parties to ensure the American people don’t have to endure another shutdown.”
Privately, some GOP hard-liners are open to the possibility of a DHS stopgap, according to three people granted anonymity to describe internal conversations, with one saying it was “not an automatic no.”
But their support would depend on the length of the stopgap and whether any Democratic policies are included as part of the agreement. That person added that a two-week punt negotiators are discussing would be “ridiculous.” Ultra-conservatives would prefer one lasting six weeks or longer.
Democrats want to move in the opposite direction, with Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota calling for a negotiation of “days, not weeks.”
In any scenario, GOP leaders will likely need Trump’s involvement to get the DHS stopgap and the remaining five bills passed in the House and signed into law, which would keep the vast majority of federal agencies — including the Pentagon — open through Sept. 30.
Speaker Mike Johnson already is dealing with a razor-thin margin, and a special election in Texas over the weekend is expected to complicate matters. If the Democratic nominee wins as expected, Johnson could spare only a single defection on a party-line vote.
House GOP leaders are set to discuss their plans Thursday afternoon, including whether they would need to call the House back earlier than currently planned Monday night, according to two other people granted anonymity to describe private deliberations. But that will depend on how quickly the Senate can pass any agreement.
Another complication is that a huge swath of House Democrats would likely oppose stopgap funding for DHS, which would keep ICE and Border Patrol funded at current levels without immediate new restrictions. That could prevent GOP leaders from trying to pass the spending legislation on a bipartisan basis under suspension of the rules, which requires a two-thirds majority vote.
On a caucus call Wednesday night, House Democrats aired concerns their Senate counterparts might accept a deal that does not put real guardrails on DHS agents, according to three people granted anonymity to describe the private meeting. Their leaders haven’t been included in the talks with the White House so far.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Thursday his caucus would “evaluate” whatever emerged out of the Senate on DHS funding and signaled they might settle for a stopgap funding bill for the agency while broader negotiations come together.
“If we’re on a path to a dramatic, immediate, transformative change, then I’m sure that will be a part of what heavily weighs into our discussion,” he said.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, asked Thursday about how soon a potential agreement could get final House approval, said his “hope and expectation” is that the other chamber will do “what’s necessary to keep the government funded.” He added that the House plan would be up to Johnson, whom he has spoken with, while acknowledging that having to abandon the six-bill package was “not ideal, for sure.”
“We’d hoped to process all the six bills and send it to the White House, but we are where we are, and so we got to try and sort it out and get the best possible outcome given the hand we’ve been dealt,” Thune added.
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