White House, Democrats negotiate as shutdown deadline nears

WASHINGTON — Days before a deadline to fund the Department of Homeland Security, Senate Democrats and the White House are swapping proposals in hopes of averting a partial government shutdown.

But time is short: Both sides have just four days to reach some kind of an agreement, or risk the Department of Homeland Security — the only department yet to be funded through a full-year appropriations bill — to go dark.

Both sides remain at odds over immigration policy, but negotiations have picked up pace.

The White House on Monday evening sent a counterproposal to the one sent by Senate Democrats over the weekend that included their demands for an immigration enforcement overhaul. The Democrats’ weekend proposal also included new enforcement guardrails spurred by the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal immigration agents.

Senate Republicans appeared optimistic on Monday that a partial shutdown could be avoided, floating the prospect of a continuing resolution to keep DHS open while negotiations happened. But Senate leaders were reluctant to specify the details of such a plan — including the length of a funding extension — Monday evening.

“It’s hard to predict right now how this all plays out, but I do think there’s a good back-and-forth on substantive issues, so we’ll see where it could go,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.

A Senate Republican aide said Thune is expected to begin teeing up a CR on Tuesday.

Several Republicans raised the possibility of a two-week CR, while others have argued that would not be long enough for substantive conversations with their Democratic colleagues.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., who chairs the Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee, predicted the White House’s proposal wouldn’t be “workable” to Democrats and that he sees “this week [ending] in a CR.”

“If we’re able to see that there’s a path forward, which hopefully the Democrats will see that there’s a path forward here, we’re not going to be able to iron out all the details in a few days here,” he said. “I would like to see a four-to-six-week [CR]. They may want to do another two weeks, which will [put us] right back in the same spot in two weeks.”

Democratic reaction

But many Senate Democrats on Monday expressed reluctance to do another CR and said they had yet to see the White House’s counterproposal.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said he was “aware” of the White House counteroffer, but couldn’t immediately provide more information.

Kaine said his support for a continuing resolution would be dependent on the nature of the counteroffer the White House makes to Democratic demands.

“Let’s see what the negotiation is like on the proposal the Dems have made and the counteroffer that the Republicans are making,” Kaine said. “We’ll know more after lunch tomorrow.”

Other Democrats hedged on whether they would be willing to support a short-term funding measure for DHS at current levels as negotiations continue, saying it would be dependent on efforts from the White House and Republicans.

“I would be open to it, yeah, but there has to be real effort at negotiating on the other side,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., said.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, who was among the few Senate Democrats who voted repeatedly last year to avert or end what has to date been the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history, said Monday she wouldn’t support a continuing resolution without greater engagement from Republicans.

“If they’re not willing to work with us, I don’t support a continuing resolution,” Cortez Masto said. “They need to work with us on reforms. The public demands it.”

Sen. Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, said Monday he wasn’t inclined to support a continuing resolution to keep going for the time being “unless they do the reforms.”

“I want to see the reforms first,” King said. “I can’t, in good conscience, vote to fund these people [with what they’re] doing now. Period.”

King added he would “probably” still be a no vote if Republicans said they just needed a little more time to reach an agreement, but left the door open for a reversal.

“I would talk to the participants to see whether the progress was real or whether it was just a delay,” King said.

Other Democrats said they couldn’t see themselves voting for a continuing resolution, citing previous votes against an agreement that put the current short-term funding for DHS in place.

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said he didn’t vote for the last funding agreement that teed off negotiations and would vote no again.

“We have an out-of-control, reckless agency that’s violating people’s rights every single day,” Booker said. “We need to bring them under control. Right now, I don’t see anything being done to do that, or willingness from the Republicans to do that, so I’m not voting for any kind of money for an out-of-control agency that’s violating people’s rights and actually taking lives.”

Munich Conference and timing

Mullin noted that many senators are planning to leave town at the end of this week to travel to the Munich Security Conference — a trip seen as crucial with the ongoing tensions between Ukraine and Russia.

“And there’s a lot of [Democrats that] are going to Munich. And so I’m thinking they’re probably going to want to get out of here on Thursday,” Mullin said. “If they are, let’s do a CR that actually matters. Another two weeks probably isn’t going to get there. Let’s do four weeks or six weeks, but they want to keep hodgepodge into two weeks at a time.”

A White House official on Monday signaled President Donald Trump would sign a stopgap funding measure to avoid a Department of Homeland Security shutdown at week’s end.

“President Trump has been consistent, he wants the government open and the Administration has been working with both parties to ensure the American people don’t have to endure another drawn out, senseless, and hurtful shutdown,” the official said in an email.

Back to the House

But even if senators sort out their differences, they have the House to contend with, which also is scheduled to leave at the end of this week for the holiday weekend.

House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Mark Amodei, R-Nev., who Friday announced his plans to retire at the end of this term, said Monday evening he has yet to see the White House counterproposal.

“There’s no legislative text, nothing to get on, and by the way, it hasn’t been formally transmitted to us, even as a whatever,” he said “We haven’t gotten it.”

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters on Monday he was “evaluating” the White House’s proposal and will discuss it with his caucus on Tuesday.

“They know that the American people appropriately blame them for shutting down the government for 43 days in the fall. Same thing will happen if they shut down the government this upcoming Friday,” Jeffries said of Republicans. “And so our view is: dramatic reform is necessary with respect to DHS before a funding bill moves forward.”

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—John T. Bennett and Aris Folley contributed to this report.