In a late-night vote, the US Senate unanimously passed a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Left on the cutting room floor was specific funding for ICE and parts of CBP. The rare small-hours session seems likely to have been heralded by President Donald Trump’s Thursday statement, suggesting he would fund the TSA through an executive order. But what happens next, and who can claim the win?
Not a Done Deal Yet
The funding package – covering elements of DHS such as the Transportation Security Administration and the US Coast Guard – still has a couple of hurdles. The first is the House, followed by whether it can get Trump’s signature. The president expressed his frustration with the matter on Thursday, March 26, saying he was ready to take executive action. He posted:
“I am going to sign an Order instructing the Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, to immediately pay our TSA Agents in order to address this Emergency Situation, and to quickly stop the Democrat Chaos at the Airports.”
Was this the spark that lit a fire under the Senate lawmakers? Or was it the use of ICE agents at airports, which, by most accounts, was a roaring success in bringing down passenger wait times?
Just hours after the Truth Social announcement, a spirit of bipartisanship blessed the upper chamber, and what could not previously be achieved occurred miraculously. Naturally, both sides of the political divide were keen to paint themselves in glory.
DHS Showdown
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) took a victory lap, saying he was “proud” of his caucus, and that “this could have been accomplished weeks ago if Republicans hadn’t stood in the way. Democrats held firm in our opposition that Donald Trump’s rogue and deadly, deadly militia should not get more funding without serious reforms, and we will continue to fight for those reforms.”
But, of course, funding was never the actual issue. The delays in passing a bill were – as Schumer and his colleagues have repeatedly confirmed – due to the “need” for ICE “reform.” Naturally, no such reform was present in the bill passed early this morning.
Indeed, thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, ICE remains fully funded to the tune of tens of billions of dollars for the next several years. As Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) was quick to point out, his Democratic Party colleagues did not get a single concession on ICE. He continued:
“Democrats didn’t actually want a solution. … They wanted an issue. Politics over policy, self-interest over reform, pandering to their base instead of actually solving the problem.”
Optics Over Opinion?
On Wednesday, March 25, the Senate GOP made an offer that Schumer rejected. It would have funded DHS, except for ICE. Sound familiar?
In response, Mr. Schumer said, “We thought there had been some progress. Then Republicans sent us their offer yesterday, and it contained none of what we talked about, none of the reforms we had been discussing.” “So, if anyone is slowing down negotiation and hurting TSA workers, it is the Republican leadership, who did not include one single reform,” he stated on the Senate floor.
What happened?
Between Wednesday afternoon and Thursday night, the math changed for Senate Democrats. The bill was essentially the same, but the vote was not. Such a 180-degree turn suggests that Thune’s assessment may not have been far off the mark.
With ICE stepping in for the TSA and Trump threatening to pay airport workers via executive order, the notion that Democrat leadership was using the shutdown as a political cudgel seems more and more likely. It’s a question of leverage, and Trump just pulled the fulcrum.
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