Republicans in the House and Senate are battling over how to move forward with funding the Department of Homeland Security after the two chambers took diametrically opposed paths last week in approving bills to fund the embattled agency.
The standoff has left both sides bickering, with House Republicans surprised by the Senate bill and feeling they were being jammed; and Senate Republicans miffed at the House GOP's outright rejection of their measure.
What the Right Is Saying
Brian Darling, a GOP strategist and former Senate aide, said the Senate is "trying to bully the House into passing something they don't want to pass."
"It was a last-minute that they passed in three in the morning through [unanimous consent] and threw it over to the House, expecting that the House would have no choice but to pass the bill and the House said no," he said.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) declared at a press conference Friday: "The Republicans are not going to be part of any effort to reopen our borders or to stop immigration enforcement. The Senate Democrats have foisted upon this appropriations practice their radical and crazy agenda."
Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Monday: "We're coming back with reconciliation. We're going to send [the House] that actually funds DHS for the next three years. We're not going through this again with the Dems, OK?"
Trump urged Senate Majority Leader John Thune to either abolish the Senate filibuster or force Democrats to hold the floor in continuous debate, telling reporters Sunday night: "They should terminate the filibuster and they should vote. They're playing it too soft."
What the Left Is Saying
Senate Democrats have vowed to block any bill that includes funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and parts of the Border Patrol, making a full DHS funding bill through regular order effectively dead on arrival in the Senate.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) attended a pro forma session Monday to object to the House-approved bill in case it came up, ensuring Democrats would filibuster any measure that includes ICE funding.
The Senate-passed bill funded most of DHS but deliberately excluded money for ICE and Border Patrol, a strategic move to avoid Democratic opposition while keeping the government funded.
What the Numbers Show
The Senate passed its partial DHS funding bill by unanimous consent in the early hours of Friday morning.
The House passed an eight-week stopgap measure to fund all of DHS, including ICE and Border Patrol.
Senate Republicans are planning to use the budget reconciliation process to fund all of DHS for three years, which would allow them to avoid a Democratic filibuster.
The standoff marks a 45-day funding gap for the department.
The Bottom Line
The House-Senate Republican divide reflects divergent political goals heading into the midterm election. Senate Republicans, favored to keep their majority, are taking a more pragmatic approach, while House Republicans, facing likely loss of their majority, are digging in on immigration enforcement.
Ross K. Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University, called the relationship between Thune and Johnson "problematic" and noted the Senate operates on a "gang system" where compromise is possible, while "the situation in the House is much more chaotic."
Unless Johnson agrees to put the Senate bill on the floor, the spending standoff threatens to continue indefinitely. Trump has not directly pressured House Republicans to accept the Senate measure, instead focusing his attention on urging Thune to change Senate rules.