After a week of false starts toward ending the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., delivered the biggest setback yet on Friday, telling his conference that he wouldn’t bring the Senate deal, passed just hours earlier with unanimous support, to the House floor.
Behind closed doors, many House Republicans are already questioning the speaker’s decision.
On a GOP members-only conference call on Friday, Johnson came out in opposition to the Senate bill.
“We are not gonna eat the crap sandwich the Senate sent us,” Johnson told House Republicans, according to a source on the line.
The Senate deal would fund most of DHS through the end of the fiscal year, with the notable exception of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and some operations at Customs and Border Protection. But Johnson wants all of DHS funded, vowing to put forward an eight-week continuing resolution that would cover the entire department.
Democrats, however, have repeatedly rejected that approach, and there’s no reason to believe they’d go along with Johnson’s proposal now.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., made it clear Friday that Johnson’s proposal would be “dead on arrival” in his chamber. And a senior GOP Senate aide, granted anonymity to discuss the fluid situation, said there is a “zero percent chance” Johnson’s plan passes the Senate.
“Clearest way to ending the shutdown,” this Senate GOP source said, is for the “House to approve what we sent.”
But it’s not just Democrats and Senate Republicans who are questioning Johnson’s decision.
During the private conference call with House Republicans, Johnson’s own members criticized the speaker’s plan, according to the source on the line who was granted anonymity to share the private discussions.
Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, who is facing what could be a difficult re-election bid this fall, said she has “tremendous concerns” with Johnson’s proposal.
“Who thinks the Senate is going to pass this?” Miller-Meeks asked, according to the source on the call.
Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., urged GOP leadership to “take yes for an answer,” arguing that not doing so would put the GOP in “jeopardy.” And she questioned whether Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., assured him this alternative plan would pass. (Johnson said Thune hadn’t given him any assurances.)
And Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., warned that if Republicans move ahead with Johnson’s plan, “in the end,” the House GOP would “end up owning this shutdown” — a concern that Rep. Tom Barrett, R-Mich., echoed as well.
“We are going to suffer the blame” for the DHS shutdown, Barrett said, according to the source. “We are going to be the ones to blame even if it isn’t our fault.”
Still, many Republicans also made it clear Friday they would not back the Senate-passed bill, voicing frustration that it did not include funding for ICE or the SAVE America Act — a voter ID bill sought by Trump and conservative Republicans.
Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, for instance, accused the Senate of “acting cowardly” by passing the bill before they “scurried like rats” out of town. Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., likewise criticized the Senate for leaving, arguing they’ll have to come back.
And Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., told his colleagues that the Senate “threw a hand grenade over to us.”
But as lawmakers look for a way to end the six-week shutdown at DHS, it’s clear that Johnson’s plan would prolong the impasse.
At this point, it’s not even clear whether House Republicans could pass their stopgap. Johnson indicated the House would try in the next 24 hours. But even if he can get the proposal over to the Senate, the bill will likely be stuffed in a filing cabinet there.
With President Donald Trump suggesting Thursday night that he would declare an emergency to pay TSA workers to hopefully solve the growing lines at airports, one of the key pressure points for solving this has also been turned off.
The House and Senate are both scheduled for a two-week recess, and it’s unclear if either chamber plans to cancel that break — or whether they’ll just point fingers at the other chamber as the shutdown drags on.
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