Washington — Legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security stumbled again in the Senate on Thursday, despite warnings from Republicans that ending the partial government shutdown has grown more urgent since the beginning of the war with Iran.
In a 51 to 45 vote, the Senate failed for a third time to reach a 60-vote threshold to advance a House-passed measure to fund DHS. The House is set to vote on a nearly identical measure around 4 p.m.
Republicans have put pressure on Democrats to support a bipartisan agreement that appropriators reached earlier this year to fund DHS through September. But that was before a second fatal shooting by federal agents in Minneapolis in January, which prompted Democrats to oppose any funding for the department without reforms to immigration enforcement.
Shortly before the Senate vote, President Trump announced he was replacing DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said earlier that "it might be easier for us to negotiate" on DHS funding if Noem was fired.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, warned this week that while "there are always threats to the homeland that have to be addressed," the stakes are higher now.
"It shouldn't need saying that it's always a terrible idea to use the Department of Homeland Security as a political pawn," Thune said. "But above all right now, with enhanced terror threat from Iran and Iran-funded terrorist groups, it is vital that we ensure the Department of Homeland Security is fully funded and fully functioning."
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said in a statement Tuesday that "military action in Iran makes it all the more urgent and crucial to have a fully staffed, fully funded Department of Homeland Security across all departments."
On Wednesday, Johnson accused Democrats of "playing political games" and called it "shameful" that anyone would vote against funding DHS.
"If we're being wise, now is the time to be vigilant at home and to ensure that all of our doors are locked, so to speak," Johnson said. "Obviously everyone understands that it's a heightened threat environment. Global tensions are high, threats are constantly evolving and America's adversaries are watching for any sign of weakness on our part."
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, echoed Wednesday that it's "dangerous" to continue the shutdown amid heightened security concerns in the U.S. in wake of the attack on Iran.
"Now that we're at a heightened threat, it's not just hypothetical threats … we need to be more vigilant than ever and have a fully functioning Department of Homeland Security with all the capabilities," Scalise said, pointing to a deadly shooting at a bar in Austin, Texas, over the weekend.
Funding lapsed for the department on Feb. 14, and Democrats and the White House continue to remain at odds on restraints for federal immigration agents. Both sides have been going back and forth with counterproposals, though the details have not been made public. According to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, both sides are "still far apart."
"But we're still negotiating and exchanging paper back and forth," Schumer said Tuesday.
Last week, the Senate failed for a second time to advance the measure to fund DHS through September. The House passed the bill in January, before a second American citizen was shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis. Just seven House Democrats supported the measure at the time, with many expressing concerns that it did not go far enough to reform immigration enforcement.
Since federal agents fatally shot Alex Pretti in Minnesota, Democrats have remained firm in their demands for reforms, which include requiring immigration agents to wear body cameras and identification, banning them from wearing masks and mandating judicial warrants for arrests on private property.
Though the standoff has centered on Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, DHS also oversees the Transportation Security Administration, the Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Workers who have continued to do their jobs during the shutdown have begun missing paychecks in recent days.
The Trump administration's immigration enforcement campaign has remained funded despite the shutdown, thanks to a multibillion-dollar cash infusion for ICE and CBP that lawmakers passed last summer as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who was asked about Democrats' response to the House GOP strategy for funding DHS in the wake of the strikes on Iran, said, "the whole thing is insane."
"Donald Trump launches an unauthorized war in the Middle East, he characterizes it as endless, he decides that he wants to spend billions of dollars to bomb Iran, rather than spend taxpayer dollars to lower the grocery bills that are crushing the American people, and then wants to use his unauthorized war as an excuse to continue spending taxpayer dollars to brutalize or kill American citizens by continuing to unleash ICE without restriction on the American people," the New York Democrat said at a news conference Tuesday. "Make it make sense, because it does not."
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