NEED TO KNOW

• Senate Republicans formally offered Tuesday to fund 94% of DHS while deferring $5.5 billion in ICE deportation funds to a future reconciliation bill
• Trump said he is “not happy” with the plan; Democrats said it lacks the immigration reforms they’ve required since January
• GOP Sen. Rick Scott and the House Freedom Caucus both declared the framework a nonstarter

WASHINGTON, D.C. (TDR) — A Republican plan to end the five-week partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security hit resistance from three directions Tuesday — Democrats demanding ICE reforms, conservative Republicans refusing to defer deportation funding, and a president publicly hedging on a deal his own allies negotiated.

The big picture: The DHS shutdown has moved past political standoff into operational crisis, with TSA staffing shortages producing hours-long airport lines and both parties now under public pressure to act — but unable to agree on terms.

• DHS has been partially shut down since late January, following the second fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by immigration enforcement officers
• TSA airport delays have become the shutdown’s most visible consequence, with lines stretching four hours at major hubs
• ICE and CBP have continued operating on funds appropriated through last summer’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act

Freedom-Loving Beachwear by Red Beach Nation - Save 10% With Code RVM10

Why it matters: The fight over DHS funding is no longer just a budget dispute — it’s a proxy battle over who controls the terms of immigration enforcement and what Congress is willing to trade to end a shutdown that’s hurting millions of travelers.

• A deal requires 60 Senate votes, meaning Republicans need Democratic support they haven’t secured
• The reconciliation fallback — the GOP’s plan B for ICE funding and voter ID — faces serious legal constraints under Senate budget rules
• Failure to act leaves tens of thousands of DHS workers without paychecks and U.S. national security infrastructure understaffed

Driving the news: Senate Majority Leader John Thune formally sent Democrats legislative text Tuesday for a plan to fund all of DHS except ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations.

• The offer covers TSA, FEMA, the Coast Guard, CISA, and Customs and Border Protection
• The excluded $5.5 billion for ICE deportation operations would be pursued separately through budget reconciliation
• Republicans also plan to use reconciliation to include elements of the SAVE America Act, the voter ID bill Trump has called his top legislative priority
• Trump said Tuesday he would “take a good hard look” at the proposal — a cooling from Monday’s reported White House endorsement

What they’re saying: Every faction has a reason to say no, and several are saying it loudly.

• Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. — “If we are talking about funding any part of ICE or CBP, we absolutely must take some key steps to rein them in”
• Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla. — “This doesn’t make any sense with me. Democrats shut down the government because they want to give amnesty to illegals”
• Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, on passing the SAVE America Act through reconciliation — “Hard. By ‘hard’ I mean ‘essentially impossible'”
• Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., pushing back on critics — “If you’re waiting in line four hours in Atlanta, this madness needs to come to an end”

Yes, but: The framework has a structural problem that neither side is fully acknowledging.

• Democrats have demanded ICE reforms since January as the price for any DHS deal — the 94% offer doesn’t address those demands and doesn’t create a mechanism to revisit them
• Republicans promising ICE funding and voter ID through reconciliation are running into the Senate parliamentarian, who must certify that each provision has more than an “incidental” budgetary impact — a test key elements are likely to fail
• ICE is already funded through 2029 under last summer’s reconciliation bill, which means the $5.5 billion gap is a political problem, not an operational one

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE THE DUPREE REPORT

Between the lines: Both parties are using the shutdown to fight battles the shutdown itself didn’t create.

• Democrats are not primarily blocking over airport lines — they’re using leverage to extract enforcement limits on an agency they’ve sought to constrain since two ICE shooting deaths prompted the original shutdown
• Republicans are not primarily blocking over ICE operations funding — they’re using the shutdown to force a second reconciliation bill that could carry the Iran war supplemental, voter ID, and other conservative priorities
• The travelers stuck in airport security lines are collateral in a fight about neither TSA nor deportations

What’s next:

• Senate vote on the 94% framework could come as early as this week if Democrats signal acceptance
• Senate parliamentarian review of reconciliation provisions for SAVE America Act compliance expected before any vote
• House Freedom Caucus opposition signals a parallel fight in the lower chamber if the Senate acts
• Trump’s public hedging leaves the White House’s actual position unclear heading into the week

When both parties are using a shutdown that’s grounding flights and leaving DHS workers unpaid to fight battles that predate it — at what point does the leverage strategy become the policy failure?

Sources

This report was compiled using information from CBS News, CNBC, Washington Times, Roll Call, Deseret News, Axios, and Fox News.

Freedom-Loving Beachwear by Red Beach Nation - Save 10% With Code RVM10