Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked for a third time a spending bill to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, insisting that they would not approve the measure without new curbs on immigration enforcement even amid President Trump’s war in Iran.
Twenty days after federal money for the department lapsed, Republicans had sought to pressure Democrats to relent and agree to fund the department without any new restrictions on the agents carrying out Mr. Trump’s deportation drive. They argued that the war in the Middle East made it even more important to fund security agencies, including the Transportation Security Administration and the Secret Service.
“Less than half of the Americans who work for the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency are on the job,” Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the majority leader, said. “The rest have been furloughed, and the agency has had to cancel vulnerability checks on certain infrastructure. Now you’d think that might raise some concern among Democrats, especially given the current threat environment, but apparently it doesn’t.”
But the failed vote showed that Democrats — at least for now — were holding firm in their demands. All but one, Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, opposed the measure in a 51-to-45 vote, leaving it short of the 60 votes needed to move ahead.
Instead, Democrats offered their own proposal to fund the department except for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and the office of Kristi Noem, who led the department until Mr. Trump removed her on Thursday. Democrats asked to quickly take up their proposal and pass it unanimously, without debate, but Republicans objected.
“If Republicans keep refusing to ensure ICE and Border Patrol follow the same basic standards that police departments across America already follow, then we should at least fund T.S.A. and FEMA while we press on with negotiations to protect Americans from violence at the hands of untrained, unidentifiable federal agents,” Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said.
Democrats have said they will not allow even a temporary, business-as-usual funding bill to proceed without measures to curtail the tactics of federal immigration agents. Their opening list of demands included requiring those officers to show visible identification, blocking them from wearing masks and adopting stricter use-of-force policies.
For weeks now, Democrats have traded a negotiated list of policies back and forth with the White House. There have been no recent signs of progress.
In the meantime, the department is continuing what it calls “essential” missions, though many of the department’s employees, such as T.S.A. agents, are going without pay. The funding lapse has had few implications for ICE because Republicans approved billions of dollars in funding for the agency last summer in their marquee tax bill.
A vote on the same funding measure was scheduled for later on Thursday in the House.
“The 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,” Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement. “Democrats withholding funding for the department in the midst of rapidly mounting crises is the definition of irresponsibility.”
Catie Edmondson covers Congress for The Times.
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