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The top two congressional Democrats have, for now, rejected President Donald Trump and Republicans’ offer to avert a shutdown as the deadline rapidly approaches.
For several hours Monday night, both Republicans and Democrats were near-radio silent about the nature of the counter-offer from the White House. That was, in part, because some lawmakers had no idea what was in it.
But the silence appeared to spell yet another positive step toward averting the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Until Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., trashed the offer Monday night.
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“Republicans shared an outline of a counterproposal, which included neither details nor legislative text,” the duo said in a joint statement.
“The initial GOP response is both incomplete and insufficient in terms of addressing the concerns Americans have about [Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s] lawless conduct,” they continued. “Democrats await additional detail and text.”
While not the death knell for negotiations to fund DHS or to agree to a short-term funding extension, it does slow some of the optimistic momentum that Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said was building over the weekend.
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Democrats’ prime objective is reining in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), following the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good. They finally turned over their legislative proposals to rein in DHS and ICE to Republicans on Saturday.
The proposal they submitted included items that are a bridge too far for Republicans, including requiring ICE agents to get judicial warrants, demask, and have identification ready — some in the GOP warn doing so would lead to more agents being doxxed, when a person’s private information is made public, like their address.
The White House’s counter-offer was in response to Democrats’ list of demands and has been kept under heavy lock and key.
SHUTDOWN AVERTED FOR NOW, BUT SENATE WARNS DHS FIGHT COULD TRIGGER ANOTHER IN DAYS
Before Schumer and Jeffries’ rebellion, Republicans were already mulling turning to another short-term funding extension, known as a continuing resolution (CR), for DHS. That’s because after the House passed the Trump-Schumer funding deal last week, lawmakers had only eight days to figure out how to fund the trickiest of all federal agencies.
Now the Friday deadline is quickly bearing down on Congress, and lawmakers are set to leave Washington, D.C., on Thursday for a weeklong recess. Many will head to Germany for the Munich Security Conference.
Thune said that he would likely tee up another CR on Tuesday, and at the time was optimistic that negotiations were moving in a direction that could lead some Democrats to support the move.
“We will have to vote on something, obviously, if there’s additional time that’s needed, and hopefully Democrats will be amenable to doing another — an extension,” Thune said.
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