The GOP Leadership Mess the DHS Funding Debacle Is Exposing, and Where We Go From Here – RedState

What a mess.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune spent all week allegedly working to get the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) open again and pass the SAVE America Act, but after days of increasingly tough talk he cut a middle-of-the-night deal with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to fund most of DHS, but not parts of ICE or part of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), passed it by voice vote, then high-tailed it out of town to start a two-week recess.

That might have been okay if Thune had bothered to coordinate with House Speaker Mike Johnson to be sure that whatever was passed in the Senate would work for House Republicans, or with the White House.

But he didn’t, and now we’ve got a procedural mess on our hands with competing funding bills and vacationing legislators – not to mention the schism in GOP leadership Thune’s actions put into the spotlight.

Perhaps Thune thought that since House Democrats would vote for the Senate measure (which Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has confirmed), a few Republicans could be prevailed upon to defect and get it passed (and he’s probably right about that), and that’s why he didn’t bother coordinating with Speaker Johnson.

And based on what GOP Rep. Tim Burchett (TN-02) said on Fox News Sunday, that’s likely what happened:

Senate leadership rams through a 2 a.m. DHS funding deal with Schumer that skips ICE and the SAVE America Act, leaves Speaker Johnson out, and Rep. Tim Burchett calls it exactly what it looks like — shady and pathetic.

While 83% of Americans want voter ID and proof of… pic.twitter.com/MoW0iMpJax

— Greg Madden (@GregMaddenUSMC) March 29, 2026

Burchett said:

The leadership in the Senate..on both sides of the aisle, has a real disgust for this president and House leadership, because they didn’t even have the guts to call Speaker Mike Johnson and let them know what happened…the stereotype of Congress is – and it’s well deserved – is that we pass stuff in the in the dark of night because we don’t have any guts. And that’s clearly what’s shown in the Senate leadership.

By Friday afternoon Speaker Johnson, after reading the details of the Senate bill, said, “This gambit that was done last night is a joke,” telling Salem News Channel’s Scott Jennings that the bill was going “straight to the shredder, where it belongs and confirming that he wasn’t procedurally bound to bring it to a vote before getting a clean 60-day continuing resolution passed.

And during the a House Rules Committee meeting setting up that chamber’s Friday night vote on the 60-day CR, Republicans argued that the Senate’s actions were “shameful” because of the lack of transparency and a move House Appropriations Chair Rep. Tom Cole (OK-04) called “a deliberate act to exclude this chamber” that was done “in the middle of the night, with the smell of jet fumes in the air,” leaving the House “to take it or leave it.”

READ MORE: House GOP Fights Back: New 60-Day Clean Bill Funds ICE and CBP

Of course, the media establishment couldn’t believe Johnson had the nerve to “leave it,” since the measure would easily pass in the House, and had passed unanimously in the Senate. None of the media mouthpieces are highlighting the devils in the details of the Senate bill, though, details that House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (LA-01) says have led “a number of senators [to] express buyer’s remorse with what they did at 3 in the morning.”

In an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” Scalise emphasized that there are “very big differences between the House and the Senate” and listed some of the problems House GOP leadership has with the Senate’s bill.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise defended the House rejecting a bipartisan Senate bill to fund most of Department of Homeland Security, saying the two bills have “very big differences.” https://t.co/OQC2H255Zp pic.twitter.com/IhdpjPQJ4j

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) March 29, 2026

He said (emphasis mine):

“One of the things that we had real concerns with is it actually defunds over 25 percent of the baseline operations of the Department of Homeland Security. Twenty-five percent. 

…

“The Senate bill they sent over, by the way, defunds about 7,000 positions at the Department of Homeland Security. And, Jon, keep in mind, we’ve had three Americans killed just last week by people here illegally. We’ve had four terrorist attacks on our home soil here in America just in the last month.

. . . 

“[T]he bill they sent us, keep in mind, will zero out – defund things like cybersecurity operations, human trafficking investigations.”

As Scalise repeatedly said, we’re at a heightened threat level for terrorist attacks on U.S. soil right now, and have had four terrorist attacks here in the last month, and that’s not the time to play games with funding one of the agencies primarily focused on battling those threats. But the heightened threat level isn’t just about terror attacks on U.S. soil; just this week, the Federal Communications Commission banned the importation of new foreign-made consumer routers, labeling them “a severe cybersecurity risk ⁠that could be leveraged to immediately and severely disrupt U.S. critical infrastructure.” Defunding cybersecurity operations in the midst of that threat doesn’t seem like a smart idea.

DIVE DEEPER: One Step Down, More to Go: The FCC Takes a Stand Against Foreign-Made Routers

Meanwhile, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) appeared on “Fox News Sunday” with Shannon Bream and essentially said the House-passed continuing resolution has no chance of getting through the Senate and that they’d try to get DHS funded through reconciliation. He believes there are enough votes for what they want to do; hopefully, they’re actually working with House leadership this time.

WATCH: @SenTomCotton says reconciliation is “the path we’re going down now,” adding he thinks there are enough votes for what they want to do. pic.twitter.com/4RAFctNXGF

— Fox News Sunday (@FoxNewsSunday) March 29, 2026

So, where are we now?

There are competing DHS funding bills; the Senate bill passed early Friday morning, which excludes funding for ICE and some CBP operations, and the 60-day continuing resolution to fully fund DHS, which the House passed Friday night. Both bills would ensure that civilian & non-law enforcement support staff for ICE & CBP, who also weren’t being paid during the shutdown and who weren’t covered by President Trump’s executive order to pay TSA workers, would be paid.

Fox News’ Chief Congressional Correspondent Chad Pergram explains in great detail what’s next in his “Hitchhiker’s Guide To What To Expect On DHS Funding When The Senate Meets Monday.” Here are the highlights (if you want to go deeper into the procedural machinations, definitely click over to Pergram’s post):

The Senate meets Monday at 10:30 am et in what was supposed to be a brief “pro forma” session where the body simply gavels in and gavels out with a skeleton crew on hand.

But that might not be what happens Monday. As soon as the Senate gets through the prayer and pledge, it’s likely a Republican senator seeks recognition from the chair.

If that happens, we anticipate the GOP senator to ask unanimous consent (meaning all 100 senators would agree) to take up the DHS bill passed by the House Friday, that it be “read a third time” and passed.

The chair will then ask if there is an objection.

If any senator – be they a Democrat or Republican – objects, the House bill is dead. That means that the House and Senate continue to be out of alignment on the DHS funding question.

. . .

If there is no objection, the House and Senate are aligned and will have passed the same bill. That means they are on the same page.

Approval of the House bill by the Senate would end the DHS shutdown.

But if there’s an objection, everything remains frozen. 

Fortunately for everyone involved, President Trump’s executive order to pay TSA worker salaries has taken away the Democrats’ leverage, and if Republicans are smart, they’ll use the reprieve to play hardball and get DHS fully funded.

Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.

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