GOP leaders endorse Trump's shutdown-proof move to end DHS funding lapse
Republican leaders are rallying around President Donald Trump's new approach to end the 47-day Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding lapse — a plan that could make the agency shutdown-proof...
By Fox News · Fox News
Republican leaders are rallying around President Donald Trump's new approach to end the 47-day Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding lapse — a plan that could make the agency shutdown-proof for the rest of Trump's term. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Wednesday that DHS will be funded along "two parallel tracks," meaning that the president's immigration and border security agenda will receive an influx of money through a party-line reconciliation bill. The rest of DHS is funded through the normal appropriations process. "We operated under a belief that while our country is in the midst of an international armed conflict, Democrats might finally come to their senses and understand that defunding our homeland security agencies is beyond reckless and very dangerous," Johnson and Thune wrote in a joint statement. "We cannot allow Democrats to any longer put the safety of the American public at risk through their open border policies, so we are taking that off the table." The GOP leaders added that a forthcoming budget reconciliation package will include three years of immigration enforcement and border security funding. That move could prevent Democrats from using the appropriations process as leverage over the president's immigration agenda for the remainder of his term. HOUSE CONSERVATIVES ERUPT OVER SENATE GOP, WHITE HOUSE DEAL AMID SAVE ACT FIGHT The GOP leaders' budget reconciliation push comes as Republican efforts to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) through regular order have stalled in the Senate due to widespread opposition from Democrats. With the Senate’s 60-vote legislative threshold in place, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., effectively has veto power over DHS appropriations if he keeps his caucus in line. To end the stalemate, Trump asked Republicans Wednesday to draft a budget reconciliation package funding immigration en…