Lawmakers face a final sprint this week before a mini spring break recess — that is, if leadership lets them leave.
With new urgency to fund the Department of Homeland Security, the focus will be on off-the-floor negotiations to end the partial government shutdown.
And President Donald Trump is further complicating a deal to reopen DHS by tying it to the GOP’s sweeping voter ID bill, legislation the Senate stayed in session to debate over the weekend and that could take up a majority of floor time again this week.
“I don’t think we should make any deal with the Crazy, Country Destroying, Radical Left Democrats unless, and until, they Vote with Republicans to pass ‘THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,’” Trump posted to Truth Social.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has threatened to keep senators in Washington if they don’t get DHS funding settled by the week’s end; leaving town would guarantee this shutdown becomes the longest of a federal agency in history.
But coupling the SAVE America Act with a funding deal creates a Herculean problem for Thune, as no Democrats — and not even all Republicans — support the election security proposal, and he has not budged on overhauling the chamber’s rules or norms regarding a filibuster.
Trump also said on Monday at an event in Memphis, Tenn., “I’m tying homeland security to voter identifications, with picture and proof of citizenship in order to vote. …. It should be part of the homeland security bill.”
“I’m requesting that the Republican senators do that immediately,” Trump continued. “You don’t have to take a fast vote. Don’t worry about Easter, going home. In fact, make this one for Jesus, OK?”
Shutdown deadline
Appropriators have a growing fire under them as lawmakers’ scheduled Easter recess approaches in a few days. Thune last week said he couldn’t “see us taking a break if the government’s still shut down.”
Senate appropriators of both parties held face-to-face meetings last week with White House “border czar” Tom Homan, the first of their kind since the department’s partial shutdown began a month ago. But the following meeting on Saturday was canceled, and none took place on Sunday.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told C-SPAN’s Ceasefire, “I do not see any resolution right now” and the meetings “frankly could be emails.”
Kennedy, a member of the Appropriations Committee, joined with his fellow Democratic appropriator Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont. Both pointed to disagreements centered around Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“I want to fund every single thing where we don’t have any disagreement,” Welch said. “The only place where we do have disagreement is ICE.”
On Sunday, Thune asked Trump to consider a plan that would allow Congress to pass full-year funding for the beleaguered department except for ICE. Republicans have been floating providing ICE funding through a second filibuster-proof reconciliation bill to enact more partisan policies, and without the immigration enforcement overhaul Democrats have been seeking.
But within hours, Trump rejected it in a broadside and tied it to the SAVE America Act.
“Put it all together, and also, let Leader Thune clearly identify those few ‘Republicans’ that are Voting against AMERICA,” Trump wrote. “They will never be elected again!”
Meanwhile, the House will vote on a GOP-backed Homeland Security funding bill again this week, though that bill would have no realistic path in the Senate.
Mullin’s moment
The Senate on Monday night is expected to vote to confirm Sen. Markwayne Mullin to replace Kristi Noem as DHS head, meaning one of his first duties on the job will be to grapple with a department with its lights off.
During his confirmation hearing last week, Mullin highlighted that as a top priority: “We have to get DHS funded.”
“We have to set the partisan side down, and we have to realize that we’re putting our homeland and the peace of mind at risk for the American people,” he said. “Sometimes it’s political theater, sometimes it’s true differences, but what we do know is that we’re playing with fire.”
The Senate on Sunday voted 54-37 to invoke cloture on his nomination. Two Democrats, Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, crossed party lines to support Mullin.
Several senators did not vote, like Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who is expected to vote against Mullin’s confirmation after he didn’t support him last week out of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, a panel which he chairs.
War powers and Iran
As the Senate continues its debate of the SAVE America Act, Democrats have been forcing unsuccessful votes to limit Trump’s war powers in Iran, and there will likely be more attempts this week.
D.C. is also keeping an eye toward the White House and Trump’s fiscal 2027 budget proposal, which could come next week.
Lawmakers are bracing for a potential $200 billion supplemental request from Trump to fund the conflict in Iran.
“It takes money to kill bad guys, so we’re going to Congress and our folks there to ensure we’re properly funded for what’s being done, for what we may have to do in the future,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters last week.
Some House Republicans have already come out against the supplemental. With such a tight margin, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., can only lose a few GOP votes if all Democrats also stand against it.
“I will not vote for a war supplemental. … I already told leadership I’m a ‘no’ on any war supplementals,” Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., told reporters last week. “I am so tired of spending money elsewhere, I’m tired of the industrial war complex getting all of our hard-earned tax dollars.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, also said the $200 billion “hasn’t been presented to us thus far.”
“I’m thinking it’s time we need to be looking at what an AUMF might look like,” Murkowski said of a formal war powers authorization in Congress. “I think that Congress deserves and should demand greater engagement with the administration on the plans. We haven’t received that to date. We’re getting the information the same way that you are getting information.”
Ethics watch
In a rare move, the House Ethics Committee will hold a public trial Thursday to consider alleged ethics violations of Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., who was accused by the Justice Department of using FEMA overpayment funds to support her 2021 congressional campaign.
For a committee that largely operates behind closed doors, public trials are few and far between. The panel is often criticized for moving too slowly in its investigations, as many members have regarded it as the “place probes go to die.”
The committee said in a statement that it has been investigating Cherfilus-McCormick since September 2023. “Further delay of the matter would not serve the interests of justice,” they continued.
FISA trouble
The House, however, will not be taking up a controversial spy powers reauthorization bill, which has an April 20 deadline.
Johnson and GOP leadership have advocated for a “clean extension” of the measure without any major changes. FBI Director Kash Patel and CIA Director John Ratcliffe also advocated that as the administration’s stance to Senate Republicans earlier this month.
But that’s a nonstarter for privacy hawks on both sides of the aisle who argue Section 702, which allows the U.S. government to collect digital communications of foreigners located outside the country, needs an overhaul.
Johnson is instead punting it until after lawmakers come back from a two-week recess, setting up for debate just days ahead of the deadline.
Aris Folley and Paul M. Krawzak contributed to this report.
