WASHINGTON — U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson wants to make changes to a Senate-passed bill that would end the shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security, a move that will further delay funding and prolong the stalemate that began in mid-February. 

The holdup could again interrupt paychecks for workers at the Transportation Security Administration and Federal Emergency Management Agency, both of which are part of DHS. Huge backups in airline security lines resulted in March when TSA officers went without pay for weeks until the administration scrambled to reprogram funds.

Johnson, R-La., has chosen not to negotiate potential tweaks in the funding bill with Senate Democrats, who will be needed to advance it if the House makes alterations.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said during a Tuesday afternoon press conference the bill that’s stalled in the House doesn’t “need tweaks.” 

“They’re just stuck. So they come up with, ‘We need some technical changes,’” he said. “Hold up national security for technical changes? It’s absurd. They can pass the bill right now.” 

Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, ranking member on the Appropriations Committee, said during a brief interview she was “flabbergasted” by Johnson’s comments.

She added during the press conference she has “no idea what technical changes they’re looking at.”

House hasn’t voted on DHS funding

The Senate unanimously passed a bill to fund the vast majority of the Department of Homeland Security in late March and again in early April. Johnson hasn’t put it to the House floor for a vote, blocking it from becoming law. 

The legislation doesn’t include funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the Border Patrol, a compromise negotiated after Republicans and Democrats were unable to broker agreement on guardrails for immigration enforcement operations. 

Republicans plan to provide upwards of $70 billion in additional spending for ICE and Border Patrol in a party-line budget reconciliation bill they hope to pass in the coming weeks. 

Johnson said last week he believes the “sequencing is important” on when each of the two bills becomes law. But time is running out for the tens of thousands of federal workers, who are about to miss out on their paychecks once again. 

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement the executive order President Donald Trump signed earlier this month to pay all DHS employees despite the funding lapse can only stretch so far. 

“That money is dried up if I continue down this path the first week of May,” Mullin said. “My pay roll through DHS is just over 1.6 billion dollars every 2 weeks so the money is going extremely fast and once that happens there is no emergency funds after that.”

‘We’ve got to get these agencies funded’

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he’s working with House GOP leaders to “massage” the DHS funding bill in hopes it will become law sometime soon. 

“I’m very sympathetic,” he said. “We talked last night and he’s got to manage his challenges there. We have to manage our challenges here. But one way or the other, we’ve got to get these agencies funded.”

The disconnect between House Republicans and their Senate GOP counterparts on when to fund DHS is just one of several challenges party leaders are attempting to address this week. 

“We’re trying as best we can to coordinate strategy with the House. But, you know, it’s a unique situation. We’ve got very narrow margins and people with real strong opinions,” Thune said. “So it’s going to take, obviously, I think, the heavy involvement of the White House to bust some of these things loose. But we’re trying as best we can to ensure that we can get all of these issues across the finish line and ultimately on the president’s desk.”

Republican leaders will need the support of their own members as well as at least some Democrats in order to get major legislation, including the DHS funding bill, to Trump. 

But as of midday Tuesday, it didn’t appear they’d looped in key negotiators on possible changes to the Senate-passed spending bill. 

Recess next week

Alabama Republican Sen. Katie Britt, chairwoman of the subcommittee in charge of funding DHS, said she didn’t know what changes House GOP leaders wanted to make. 

“I am not aware. I just know that we need to find a pathway forward,” she said. “And nobody should be leaving here, or certainly flying off to (congressional delegation trips), until we do.” 

Both chambers of Congress are scheduled to leave on Thursday for a week-long break. 

Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, ranking member on the DHS funding panel, said House Republicans hadn’t reached out to him or his staff. 

“I don’t know why he’s making this more complicated than it needs to be,” he said. “Our bill, which passed the Senate 100 to zero, would pass the House easily.”

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that Democrats will use the unlimited number of amendment votes they are allowed on Republicans’ budget resolution to illustrate policy differences on cost-of-living issues and immigration activities. 

“We are for reducing costs for the American people, whether it’s housing or whether it’s health care or whether it’s electric costs or whether it’s groceries or whether it’s child care,” he said. “And they are funding a rogue police force that is not even popular with the American people.”

Republicans voted Tuesday to begin debate on their budget resolution, which holds instructions that would allow the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee as well as the Judiciary Committee to each write a bill that spends up to $70 billion on immigration enforcement. 

Amendment debate could begin Wednesday or Thursday, followed by a simple majority vote to approve the budget resolution, sending it to the House.  

GOP leaders are using the same complex budget reconciliation process they used last year to enact their “big, beautiful” law to approve three years of funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol. The earlier bill, enacted last July, included $170 billion to bolster the administration’s immigration activities. 

The House and Senate must vote to adopt the budget resolution before they can use the reconciliation process to approve a bill without having to garner 60 votes in the Senate to end debate.

Spending on those two agencies would normally run through the annual Homeland Security government funding bill. But that process stalled earlier this year when Democrats demanded new constraints on immigration activities after federal officers shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. 

Negotiations between Republicans and Democrats moved rather slowly and contributed to a record-setting shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security, which began in mid-February. 

President Donald Trump urged GOP lawmakers to vote against any Democratic amendments in a social media post.

“The Radical Left Democrats, and their so-called ‘Leader,’ Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, one of the most incompetent Senators in American History, will try to offer ‘Amendments’ during this process to divide Republicans,” he wrote. “Republicans must stick together and UNIFY to get this done, and to keep America safe — something which the Democrats don’t care about. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

‘Glaring contrast’ to be highlighted

Democrats said during their press conference they plan to use the marathon amendment voting session on the budget resolution that sets up the reconciliation process to force Republicans to take votes on several issues. 

“We are ready with our amendments to show the glaring contrast between the parties in terms of who’s for reducing your costs and who’s not,” Schumer said. 

Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Patty Murray, D-Wash., said that instead of working on legislation to bring down costs for everyday Americans, Republicans in Congress are focused on providing tens of billions in additional funding for immigration enforcement. 

“Gas prices have surged. Health care premiums have doubled or tripled, or worse, pricing millions out of their coverage. So what are Republicans doing about all of that? Nothing,” she said. “Their urgent top priority this week is shoveling at least $70 billion at ICE and Border Patrol with zero accountability, zero reforms and zero strings attached.”

Hawaii Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz said Republicans are sending a clear message about their policy goals and priorities by using the reconciliation process to provide the administration with another significant boost for immigration and deportation activities. 

“When you’re in the majority in the Senate, you get limited opportunities to use this unusual tool of reconciliation — once, maybe twice, in a year,” he said. “And so it’s pretty significant that using this tool, they have decided to do exactly nothing about the cost of living.”

Klobuchar decries $70 billion for immigration enforcement

Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar said that $70 billion in federal spending could go toward addressing many of the other challenges facing the country. 

Instead of giving it to ICE and the Border Patrol, she said, Congress could bolster the number of local police officers, or help people afford the cost of their health insurance premiums, or have Medicare cover dental and vision and hearing care, or build hundreds of thousands of new homes, or help lower the cost of child care for millions. 

Republicans, she said, also know there is a need to place limits on federal immigration agents after events like those in her home state and throughout the country. 

“They know there are serious problems. Why? A number of them joined with us at that Judiciary hearing to call for Kristi Noem to leave,” Klobuchar said, referring to the early March hearing that took place just days before the former DHS secretary was removed. “They asked just as tough questions, some of them, as we did.”

Wisconsin Senate Democrats and their candidates for two districts key to determining control of the Senate in 2027 promised Thursday to pass bills to bring down the cost of health care, housing, groceries, energy and child care. 

At a press conference outside the state Capitol, Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) chastised Republican lawmakers for not taking action on an array of issues.

“We have to watch the Senate Republicans play this really strange game of what they’re doing with this special session,” Hesselbein said. “They refuse to go into the special session and get the job done for the people of Wisconsin.” 

This week lawmakers gaveled in for a special session called by Gov. Tony Evers who wanted the Legislature to take up a constitutional amendment that would  ban gerrymandering. Typically, Republican lawmakers have gaveled in and then immediately gaveled out of Evers’ special sessions, but on Tuesday, lawmakers gaveled in but then adjourned until Thursday. They said they were leaving the session open and they wanted to have more discussions with Evers, who said there wasn’t anything to talk about. 

Lawmakers returned on Thursday afternoon to postpone again until April 21. 

The state Assembly and Senate have both completed their regular session work this year, although  Evers and lawmakers are still trying to reach a deal on using some of the state’s $2.5 billion budget surplus to provide property tax relief to Wisconsinites and fund public schools. Discussions have still not resulted in action since they began in February.

Hesselbein said Senate Democrats are committed to working to improve affordability in the next legislative session and promised to pass a slate of 18 bills if they win the majority. Democrats have already introduced the bills in the current session, but they did not advance in the Republican-led Legislature. 

“Senate Democrats are here. We are ready to work,” Hesselbein said. “We could get these bills passed this legislative session and we could lower costs right now, but instead Republicans behind me in this building continue to use their last gasp of power to waste time and ignore the pressing needs of every single person in the state of Wisconsin.” 

The state Senate is currently controlled by an 18-15 Republican majority, meaning Democrats would need to hold all of their current seats and flip two additional seats to win control. The last time Democrats held a majority in the state Senate and Assembly was the 2009-11 legislative session.

There have been five announced retirements by Senate Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) and two incumbents in districts that will be key to determining control. 

Hesselbein said she is “surprised” by the number of retirements. 

“It is curious that now that we finally have fair maps, a fair number of them have decided to not run,” Hesselbein said. 

Hesselbein and current Democratic senators were joined by two of their preferred candidates in key districts for the press conference who spoke to the bill packages. 

Rep. Jenna Jacobson (D-Oregon) laid out the health care and housing bill package. She is running in a three-way primary in Senate District 17. The winner of the primary will face Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green), the budget committee co-chair who is running for his fourth term in office. The other two Democratic candidates in the primary are Corrine Hendrickson, a child care advocate and Lisa White of Potosi, a small business owner. 

“There’s no question that two of the most pressing concerns and most expensive aspects of life in Wisconsin are homeownership or rent and the cost of health care and medication,” Jacobson said. “As property values skyrocket, hedge funds buy up single-family homes. As we face limited supply and algorithmic price hikes designed to maximize profit, we are left with the landscape that makes it more and more difficult for folks to afford rent and the age for the average first-time homeowner is at an all-time high.”

The policies covered in the health and housing package of bills include: 

• Eliminating cost-sharing payments for prescription drugs under the BadgerCare program
• Capping the cost of insulin at $35 
• Capping the cost of asthma medication at $25 and the cost for related medical supplies at $50 a month
• Eliminating sales tax on over-the-counter medicines
• Increasing the limit on the homestead tax credit, which provides relief to low-income homeowners and renters, from about $24,000 to $35,000
• Banning hedge funds from buying Wisconsin homes
• Prohibiting the use of algorithmic software to set rental rates and penalizing landlords who use such software for that purpose

Trevor Jung, the Racine transit director, is running in Senate District 21, which is currently represented by Sen. Van Wangaard (R-Racine). Wanggaard, who has served in the Senate since 2010, announced his retirement last month. He introduced the “Families First” package, which seeks to address child care, energy and grocery costs. 

“The Wisconsin Republican-controlled Legislature has ignored the crisis of rising prices across the state,” Jung said. “When I join these folks behind me in the Wisconsin State Senate, I will get to work…Our work will ease the burden of rising costs on Wisconsin families.” 

The policies include: 

• Using state funding to extend Child Care Counts, the state program launched with pandemic relief funds to support child care centers
• Making the child and dependent care tax credit refundable, meaning that a taxpayer would get a cash refund for the difference between a filer’s tax liability and the credit’s full value
• Raising the threshold for eligibility for the Wisconsin Shares program to 85% of the state’s median income, so more families are eligible for a state subsidy for child care
• Regulating data centers by requiring they cover the cost of expansions of the energy grid, creating a new “very large” class of customer and mandating 70% renewable energy use by the centers 
• Requiring utilities to spend 2.4% of their revenues to fund energy efficiency and renewable resource programs
• Expanding the state investment in low-income energy assistance programs to $10.4 million a year from $6 million
• Requiring a state program to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy for low-income households 
• Providing free school meals to all Wisconsin students
• Restricting the use of algorithms to set prices in grocery stores
• Prohibiting dynamic price gouging of consumer goods in retail stores

Even with a majority in the Senate, the odds of having the bills become law will depend on the state Assembly, which is currently controlled by a Republican majority, as well as  the new governor. 

Democrats will need to hold all their current seats and flip five additional seats to win the Assembly majority. This election cycle will be a test-drive for the odd-numbered Senate districts up for election this year, but every Assembly seat has already been up for election under the new maps.

Hesselbein said she is confident that voters will elect Democrats up and down the ballot in November, including in the Assembly, but added that the bills should have bipartisan support. 

“These are not fringe issues that people are talking about. These are things that we’ve been hearing about from Rhinelander to Madison to Racine to Mount Horeb. Everywhere around the state people are talking about rising costs and what we can do to combat them, so I think we should have Republicans regardless of what the makeup of the state Assembly or the state Senate is.”

There will also be a new governor in 2027. U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany is competing on the Republican side. There are seven major Democratic candidates, and Hesselbein said she believes each will be supportive of the Senate’s bills.