Senate Republicans Propose DHS Shutdown Deal, But Trump Remains Unconvinced

Trump said Tuesday he was "pretty much not happy" with whatever Senate Republicans agreed to, landing squarely in the middle of the most concrete progress negotiators had made in weeks to end the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.

Senate Republicans sent Democrats a formal offer on Tuesday after what appeared to be a breakthrough in the talks late Monday, when a group of Republicans met with President Trump at the White House and returned to the Capitol optimistic about a possible deal. Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters that the GOP offer would fund 94% of the DHS budget while withholding $5.5 billion for ICE's deportation arm, known as Enforcement and Removal Operations. The GOP proposal would fund many of the agencies DHS oversees, including TSA, FEMA, and the Coast Guard.

Asked by reporters if they had a solution, Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama said, "We do," after emerging from the White House meeting. Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Bernie Moreno of Ohio, and Steve Daines of Montana were also part of that group.

The optimism didn't survive contact with the president. Trump offered a pessimistic assessment of the plan Tuesday afternoon, saying "any deal they make, I'm pretty much not happy" — just as top Democrats were insisting that they'd need more to support the plan as well. At a swearing-in ceremony for Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Tuesday, Trump said he would "take a good hard look" at the compromise funding proposal, an incremental concession that fell short of an endorsement.

Trump has repeatedly vacillated on his position on the shutdown and the elections overhaul bill, saying in recent days that he does not want to make a deal on DHS funding unless Democrats back legislation known as the SAVE America Act, despite the fact that supporting the bill is a nonstarter for Democrats. Senate Majority Leader John Thune had spoken with Trump right after staff presented the partial-funding idea to the president on Sunday, but Trump rejected it as he took to Truth Social to attack Democrats for not backing the SAVE America Act.

The SAVE America Act complication has long bedeviled Republican vote-counters. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia laid out the arithmetic bluntly on Monday: "We don't have 60 votes to move forward with SAVE — Sen. Thune's made that pretty clear — and I think that's the challenge. So hopefully we can get the DHS funded, and then we'll deal with the SAVE America Act."

Once DHS is largely functioning again, Republicans would attempt to use the filibuster-proof reconciliation process to fund the rest of ICE and pass limited portions of the SAVE America Act, described as an election bill that is Trump's top priority. One source with knowledge of the discussions warned that budgetary constraints would severely limit what provisions of the SAVE America Act the Senate can pass through reconciliation with only Republican votes.

The skepticism from within Republican ranks is equally pointed. Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida dismissed the reconciliation pathway outright: "This idea that they'll get funded through a reconciliation package is a pipe dream. We're not going to get a reconciliation package done." Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma warned that the package could take a month or more to finalize, a process that would not even begin until the Easter recess ends on April 12.

Democrats are not offering a clean path either. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer signaled Tuesday that he will not accept the GOP offer and plans to ask for more. Democrats have refused to fund the agency without reforms to ICE following two deadly shootings by federal agents in Minneapolis in January, with Schumer saying the GOP offer "does not have any reforms" to the immigration agency.

The shutdown is now grinding into its 40th day, and the consequences at airports are no longer abstract. The latest proposal to reopen the agency comes amid swelling TSA lines at airports, as agents are facing a second missed paycheck this week and are skipping work. The Trump administration this week deployed ICE agents to some U.S. airports in what it described as a bid to assist TSA agents. Roughly 250,000 DHS employees have been forced to work without pay or have been put on leave.

The funding deal would still need to pass the House, where GOP leaders would need to navigate a tight majority. House Speaker Mike Johnson said a DHS funding bill that does not include funding for ICE would not be his preference, adding yet another obstacle to the Senate framework. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins of Maine said she was "more optimistic that by the end of the week, we will fund the Department of Homeland Security," though whether the president shares that optimism remains the central unanswered question.