House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune are at odds over how to fund the Department of Homeland Security, a dispute that threatens to extend the 72-day government shutdown well into spring.
The two leaders entered this month on the same page. They announced a joint strategy: send ICE and Border Patrol funding through a reconciliation bill, and handle the rest of DHS through regular appropriations. But the plan is fracturing as Johnson now pushes to rewrite a DHS bill that Thune's chamber has already passed twice.
Johnson argues the Senate-passed measure contains flawed language that will tank a House vote unless changes are made first. "It has some problematic language because it was haphazardly drafted," the Louisiana Republican said, promising a modified version that preserves substance but fixes the text.
Thune's response was measured but pointed. Asked to react moments later, the South Dakota Republican said his chamber had "done everything we can to ensure that everything is appropriately funded." He later indicated openness to negotiating a revised bill with the House.
The core dispute centers on language in the Senate bill that strips funding from ICE and Border Patrol. House members from both sides worry a vote on that language looks like defunding law enforcement, even though the intention is to move those agencies' money through the reconciliation process instead. Some lawmakers want to strip out that language entirely before voting.
The result is a painful timeline. If the House waits for reconciliation to finish before voting on DHS appropriations paired together, the department would remain shuttered through roughly mid-May while its emergency stopgap fund for employee salaries dries up in the coming weeks.
Any edits Johnson makes to the Senate bill, no matter how minor, would require Thune's chamber to take it up and pass it again. Johnson suggested the changes are mostly cosmetic, but even stylistic rewrites can derail a bill in a fractious Congress.
What complicates the picture further is that both men are now staking out distinct public positions. Johnson is signaling the Senate bill is unworkable in its current form. Thune is defending his chamber's work. These hardened stances make a quiet compromise harder to broker behind closed doors, where deals usually happen.
Neither leader wants to absorb blame for an extended shutdown. Johnson faces pressure from House Republicans who see political danger in voting for language that could be weaponized as anti-law enforcement. Thune faces frustration from Senate Republicans tired of seeing their passed bill rejected by the House.
The standoff underscores a fundamental challenge for unified Republican control: two leaders in different chambers with different incentives, both needing to satisfy their own members before they can agree with each other.
Author James Rodriguez: "Johnson and Thune are playing public hardball when they should be negotiating in private, and the longer they posture, the longer federal workers go without paychecks."
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