At a Cabinet meeting Thursday, President Donald Trump urged Congress to find an immediate solution to the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, which is causing increasing headaches for air travelers.
“We need to end the government shutdown immediately, or we will have to take very drastic measures,” Trump said at the White House.
He did not provide details of what steps he would take or his role in negotiations to restore funding to DHS.
The DHS shutdown has lasted more than a month, disrupting air travel. Transportation Security Administration employees are absent from work in large numbers without pay, lines are long at airports, and pressure is mounting on lawmakers to reach a deal, but it appears to be at an impasse.
According to MS Now, Senate Minority Leader John Thune (R.S.D.) told reporters Thursday that Democrats had received the Republicans’ “last and final offer.” Thune did not provide details of the latest proposal, but said the White House was “involved in an exchange that happened overnight.”
A group of Senate Republicans met with President Trump at the White House on Monday and offered what they had heralded as a compromise: funding 94% of DHS, excluding Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s removal division.
But Democrats, who have withheld support for funding the agency since February, shortly after federal agents killed two Americans in Minneapolis during an immigration crackdown, rejected the proposal because it did not include long-sought operational changes to ICE. These changes include requiring immigration officials to obtain a judicial warrant before entering private property and banning the use of masks.
Republicans on Wednesday flatly rejected a counterproposal from Senate Democrats that included some of those proposals.
In addition to extending the government shutdown, the stalled negotiations have also raised concerns that a two-week recess period that was scheduled to begin this weekend may be cut short. Thune told reporters Wednesday that it was an “open question” whether lawmakers would be able to leave town as planned.
The White House hinted behind the scenes earlier this week that it was backing a Republican plan to restart DHS, but President Trump has so far not publicly endorsed the proposal.
Earlier this week, the Trump administration sent ICE agents to airports to assist TSA. President Trump hinted Wednesday that he may send the National Guard to the airport for additional support.
— Emily Wilkins contributed to this article.
