It has been more than 60 days since the Department of Homeland Security ran out of funding on February 14. While funding for the current fiscal year still hasn’t been resolved, top officials from DHS met with Congress on Thursday, April 16, to discuss the needs of the department for next year in a hearing that some lawmakers called absurd and frustrating. They can’t even settle on current-year funding – good luck getting next year sorted out. Meanwhile, though Congress is back in session, the stalemate lingers – and the shutdown with it. Just how long can the department hold out before it falls apart entirely?
An Exercise in Futility
During a Homeland Security budget hearing on Thursday, the acting head of ICE, the admiral of the US Coast Guard, and other top department officials testified about the funding lapse and the effects it has on their work and current projects. Several asked for money for more staff, noting that not all of their lost workers have returned and that those who stayed have missed paychecks. Secret Service Director Sean Curran asked for enough funding to hire another 852 new personnel.
They also encouraged Congress to pass the funding plan already approved by the Senate: That is, fund all of DHS for this year – except for ICE and CBP – through normal, bipartisan legislation, then come back later and use the reconciliation process to pass a “skinny” bill that funds ICE and CBP – and does so for the next three years.
In her opening remarks, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the purple-haired 83-year-old Democrat from Connecticut, pointed out “the absurdity of holding a hearing on funding for these agencies” for future years when lawmakers can’t even figure out this year. She wasn’t alone. Across the aisle, Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV) called it “phenomenally interesting” that agency leaders champion the reconciliation bill. “It’s like saying, ‘We’re going to abolish Article 1 for three years,’ no disrespect,” he said, implying that funding them three years in advance effectively negates Congress for that time. “We want to give you your stuff in a consistent, predictable, sustainable way – that’s our job. Just prefund me for three years. Really? How about you prepay me for three years. You’d be dumber than hell to do that,” he said.
DHS “Disintegrating”?
Meanwhile, the department itself seems to be falling apart. At Thursday’s hearing, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Acting Director Nick Anderson reported that his agency is only about 40% staffed due to the missed paychecks. US Coast Guard Admiral Kevin Lunday said there were over 500 unpaid utility bills, threatening water and electric service at Coast Guard stations, and a backlog to process 18,000 merchant mariner credentials. According to recent reports, the number of TSA agents who have quit during this shutdown has climbed to over 500.
White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought told senators at a Budget Committee hearing on Thursday that DHS was “disintegrating.” “There is no money for the entirety of the Department of Homeland Security,” Vought told Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). “As of right now, the Department of Homeland Security is disintegrating because the secretary and I are having to figure out ways to temporarily fund people’s paychecks so we don’t have people quit and embark on new careers.”
President Trump signed a memo on March 27 to pull funds from elsewhere to pay TSA agents, including back pay for missed checks. Later, on April 3, he signed another extending it to all DHS workers who had missed pay. According to Vought, they’ve been pulling “temporarily” from funding in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the disaster relief fund.
That worked this go around – and it might work once or twice again – but Vought warns there are risks to this approach: “As we draw down that fund, we are not prepared for a natural disaster from a funding standpoint.”
Conflict in Congress
All the while in Congress, no headway has been made. The shutdown began when funding ran out on February 14 – and by late February, essential employees were working without pay. Just before the Easter recess began, the Senate passed a bill to pay for all of DHS except ICE and CBP and sent it to the House, with hopes of later crafting a party-line reconciliation bill to fund ICE and CBP for three years. At the time, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) called it a joke and rejected it out of hand. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and President Donald Trump were eventually able to bring him around, yet the speaker still refused to cut short the recess or to handle it during one of the pro forma sessions during the break.
They’ve been back just about all week, however, and still, there has been no additional vote. The Senate returned Monday, April 13, and the House came back the next day. But there’s a lot of animosity for the Senate-led path. “We’re going to have to do a skinny reconciliation package – as it’s called here in the halls – and it’s going to come from the Senate,” Johnson said during a press conference on Wednesday. “We’re going to move it as expeditiously as possible. We’re going to do our part and fund those essential functions of the government, and then we’ll do the rest of Homeland Security,” he added.
That said, the House Freedom Caucus is speaking up against this approach, and Johnson can’t make this happen without their votes. Some, like Reps. Chip Roy (R-TX) and Andy Biggs (R-AZ), want the House to take the lead and view efforts to fast-track the current plan as the Senate taking over. Others just want to load up the reconciliation package with other priorities, despite the danger that it could cost them the reconciliation process.
A vote on the non-reconciliation bill could come as early as next week, but it seems, at this point, unlikely to pass. And then what? How long until the next quick fix? How long will DHS hold out?
.jpg&w=1920&q=75)
