WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security remains shut down, but you wouldn’t know it from walking around the U.S. Capitol, where the Epstein files and President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address are the talk of elected officials.
The silence as the DHS shutdown drags into its third week is, in part, because House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune have, once again, outsourced their constitutionally-mandated spending powers to President Trump.
“I’m getting quite used to this. Republican leadership isn’t really leading,” Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA) told Raw Story.
While negotiations are nonexistent, simmering anger on the left is palpable.
“They don’t really have any agency,” Rep. Joaquín Castro (D-TX) told Raw Story ahead of a House vote this week. “They’ve voluntarily given up power.
“Johnson really is probably the weakest Speaker, at least in recent memory. Everything is just about Trump and what Trump wants, on their side.”
‘Basic safeguards’
The DHS shutdown began earlier this month after Senate Democrats defeated the no-strings-attached funding extension Republicans squeaked out of the House.
The shutdown means members of key DHS agencies, including the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), are working without pay.
Earlier this week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said the White House still hasn’t answered a recent offer shipped down Pennsylvania Avenue, with “crickets” in response.
The stand-off is fueled by Democratic fury over recent immigration operations in Minneapolis, prominently featuring violent action by agents of DHS bodies including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol.
Two U.S. citizen protesters — Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, both 37 — were shot and killed in the city last month, fueling anger already stoked by arrest and deportation efforts including shootings of undocumented migrants.
Democrats are demanding reforms including an end to masking by federal agents and the use of judicial search warrants, measures congressional Republicans, the White House and DHS leaders reject.
“We ought to be able to … agree to basic constitutional safeguards like warrants and no masks, identifying themselves,” Castro said. “Those are not unreasonable requests.”
Reasonable or not, the White House remains mum — which has some powerful Republicans pointing fingers.
In a statement, House Appropriations Committee chair Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), accused Democrats of choosing “to make the security of the American people — and the livelihoods of DHS families — contingent on partisan demands.”
Cole added: “It’s time for my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to return to the basic obligation of governing: keep the nation secure and fund the department charged with doing so.”
Castro, a member of the House Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees, told Raw Story: “We don’t want to see any part of the federal government shut down.
“At the same time, they got $150 billion extra dollars within the last few years, and Donald Trump has been willing to move money around departments since he got to a second term. And so they have the money they need for all the functions they need.”
Last May, a $150 billion infusion of money for anti-immigration measures cleared the House by a one-vote margin. It has been widely pointed out that the DHS shutdown is not affecting operations by ICE, as it benefits from that budget measure.
‘Tone deaf’
Larsen lamented DHS letting “ICE agents run amok” as “tone deaf” Republicans refuse to bend on any of the safeguards Democrats are demanding.
Larsen also pointed to lingering scandals over the behavior of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, which have led to calls for her to be fired.
“I think that part of the problem is Kristi Noem,” Larsen said. “It’s like she doesn’t want to run the agency, except for herself. It’s how it looks like and the administration refuses to even consider that.”
Noem’s use of DHS resources for her own comfort and close relationship with adviser Corey Lewandowski have been the subject of bombshell reporting. But President Trump seems inclined to stick by her.
Mocking Trump administration responses to the shutdown, Larsen, a member of the House Transportation Committee, said: “You have Kristi Noem saying things like, ‘Well, we’re not going to put out business relief dollars. We’re going to suspend TSA PreCheck [for air travelers], without checking with the White House, and the White House saying, ‘Yeah, TSA PreCheck’ [will continue].”
It added up to a clear Democratic expectation of slow to no progress in reopening DHS, and paying its key employees, any time soon — particularly as Speaker Johnson and Senate Leader Thune leave talks to Trump.
“I don’t think the White House believes, or DHS believes, they have leverage on Congress,” Larsen said. “They sure don’t seem to have leverage. The White House knows our position, and we know their position. And so it’s in their court.”
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