Senate Republicans, White House move toward ending DHS shutdown amid TSA delays

Senators and the White House appear near to a deal to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security and end the partial government shutdown as the shutdown's second month leads to worsening airport delays.
Talks are still underway, but "this deal seems to be acceptable," a White House official speaking on condition of anonymity said Tuesday. President Donald Trump has said he wants to not only fund DHS but include other changes such as prohibitions on transgender care and a voter-ID measure.
At a swearing-in ceremony for Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Tuesday, Trump said he would "take a good hard look" at the compromise funding proposal.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said at a press conference Tuesday that "Democrats have in front of them" the legislative text of a proposal to reopen DHS.
"The time to end this is now," Thune said. "It is essentially what the Democrats have been asking for."
The agreement would include funding for all of DHS except for a portion of its Immigration and Customs Enforcement budget. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., part of a group of Republicans who met with Trump at the White House on Monday night, said it would amount to funding 94% of the agency.
A deal would bring to a close the shutdown that began Feb. 14 ahead of busy travel weeks for Easter and school spring breaks. The shutdown has caused DHS employees to miss pay, with some not going to work and others working without pay. Repeated government shutdowns — most recently last fall — have ended after flight disruptions due to staffing shortages of essential government employees who weren't receiving regular paychecks.
The deal would also include a plan for Republicans to pursue a party-line bill that could make up that ICE funding and include a version of the SAVE America Act, the Trump-backed elections bill that would implement national voter-ID mandates and require proof of citizenship to register, Graham said. It would not include some of the ICE reforms Democrats have been demanding, like requiring judicial warrants for agents to enter private property or banning the use of masks.
Thune said discussion of those changes would be "contingent upon actually providing funding for ICE."
The apparent breakthrough comes amid swelling Transportation Security Administration lines at airports, as agents are facing a second missed paycheck this week and are skipping work. The Trump administration this week deployed ICE agents to some U.S. airports in what it described as a bid to assist TSA agents.
DHS funding lapsed the month after federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis as part of an immigration enforcement surge.
Timing of movement on an proposal remains unclear, though Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the situation at airports "untenable," from the Senate floor on Tuesday.
Schumer said momentum over the weekend was interrupted when Trump said he would not support any funding deal until the SAVE America Act, which Democrats have cast off as an attempt at voter suppression, is passed.
Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., said she and other Democrats "have had productive meetings with the White House as we press for meaningful reforms to ICE."
"But they would be a lot more productive if the President didn't keep making new and unreasonable demands over social media," she told reporters at a press conference.
Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., said after leaving a meeting in Thune's office on Tuesday that Republicans were "ready to go." He called on Democrats, who are also seeking ICE immigration enforcement changes in exchange for their support, to "quit moving around."
"So the Democrats need to join us," Hoeven said. "We need to pay these TSA agents."
But Democrats are not the only ones who will need to get on board. Conservative Republicans who have championed the SAVE America Act have voiced resistance to punting on the legislation and attempting to pass it under the "budget reconciliation" process, a procedural tool for budgetary legislation that requires only a simple majority to pass whereas most measures need 60 votes to clear the Senate.
"It's hard to imagine how the SAVE America Act could be passed through reconciliation And by 'hard' I mean 'essentially impossible,'" Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who has led the charge for the voter ID-bill in the Senate, posted to X on Tuesday.
Hoeven said he had talked to Lee and that negotiators will continue to engage him.
""All these things are a work in progress. Building consensus takes some time," Hoeven said.
Trouble could also be brewing among the right flank of the House GOP conference. The House Freedom Caucus — which along with Lee and other proponents of the bill have called for the Senate to change its filibuster rules to ensure passage — on Tuesday questioned the strategy. Members cast doubt on whether the SAVE America Act could even be considered under the reconciliation process, citing the chamber's "arcane rules."
"This is gaslighting. The American people are not stupid and will not accept more failure theater from Republicans in Congress. PASS THE SAVE AMERICA ACT NOW," the group posted Tuesday on X.
That hardline opposition signals a potential intraparty Republican showdown over the strategy, as leadership and moderates try to gauge whether reconciliation — under which the Senate parliamentarian gets to decide what can be considered — is even feasible.
Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., who chairs the House committee with jurisdiction over federal elections, on Tuesday circulated a list of election-related proposals to consider separately from the funding bill.
Those include a proposal that could cut potentially cut federal funds from states that do not require voters to show authorized forms of ID, though it would also allow states to issue free voter IDs to some people. Another proposal would provide grants to states to cover the cost of sharing voter registration data with the federal government. And a third would appropriate funds to states to amend the federal voter registration form to require proof of citizenship.
—Emily Wilkins contributed to this story.