With President Donald J. Trump about to potentially issue an executive order to resolve TSA funding, the Senate is currently holding a test vote on its seventh attempt to advance a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as Democrats weigh what Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) said was Republicans’ “last and final” offer but did not elaborate on what the offer entails. Democrats submitted a proposal of their own on Wednesday that included reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which Leader Thune and Republicans immediately rejected. Senators are under intense pressure to resolve the impasse as chaos at airports continues and the House and Senate are set to leave Washington for a two-week recess tomorrow, but Thune has not ruled out potentially delaying the break if the shutdown is not resolved. Earlier, at the White House, President Trump warned of “very very drastic measures” if the shutdown continues. Democrats are dug in, saying that any deal to fund all of DHS needs to include reforms to rein in ICE. Congressional Republicans have attempted to answer that by offering up a deal to fund all of DHS security except for ICE enforcement operations. But neither Democrats nor President Trump have been willing to fully embrace that proposal and the president has been noncommittal about signing any deal that does not fund all of DHS. A procedural vote on whether to move forward with a Republican DHS funding package also failed to advance in the Senate on Wednesday afternoon by a vote of 54-46, falling short of the 60 votes it needed.
Earlier today, Senate Democrats defeated an amendment sponsored by Senator Jon Husted (R-Ohio) a former secretary of state, to require voters to show photo ID when casting ballots in person or voting by mail, despite previous statements by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) that Democrats support photo ID requirements for elections. The Senate voted 52-47 to defeat the amendment, which needed 60 votes to be adopted. The photo ID requirement for elections is a core piece of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act, which the Senate is debating this week, but Husted sought to potentially put his Democratic colleagues on record on requiring photo ID to vote as a stand-alone matter. The SAVE America Act includes other reforms, such as requiring people to show documented proof of citizenship, such as birth certificates or passports, when registering to vote.
The House is expected to take up H. Res. 1128 – Expressing the support of the House of Representatives for the Department of Homeland Security and also H.R. 8029 – Pay Our Homeland Defenders Act.
