How the Homeland Security deal unraveled and split Republican leaders in Congress

WASHINGTON — For several hours Friday, in the predawn calm, the Senate seemed to have finally figured out how to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security before it faces the longest partial shutdown in U.S. history.

The senators delivered their agreement to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and headed to the airports, apparently confident of success.

Then he collapsed. Spectacularly.

Johnson, furious, left his office Friday afternoon. He angrily criticized the plan that the Senate unanimously agreed to, calling it a “joke.”

“I have to protect the House and I have to protect the American people,” Johnson told reporters.

It was a dramatic denunciation of a deal that his counterpart, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., had negotiated after weeks of effort, and was the latest sharp twist in a funding saga that has plagued top Republicans for much of the year.

PHOTOS: How the Homeland Security deal collapsed and divided Republican leaders in Congress

The failure of the deal leaves Congress, currently on a two-week spring break, with no easy way to break the impasse that has shut down DHS since mid-February. It also exposed a rare rift between the two Republican leaders in Congress, testing their alliances as they work to pass another set of President Donald Trump’s priorities before the November election.

Nothing will likely be easy ahead.

How the deal fell apart

Thune had negotiated for weeks with Democratic senators over their demands for new restrictions on the department’s immigration enforcement work. Offers were exchanged several times. The talks took place at an intermittent pace. The votes failed again and again.

But while Trump made clear Thursday that he would sign an executive action to pay Transportation Security Administration employees, Thune and New York Democratic leader Chuck Schumer struck a deal: It would not include funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the U.S. Border Patrol, and would set aside Democratic demands for new limits on the agencies.

Thune pointed out that Congress had allocated funds for immigration control and he told reporters that “we can at least open up a lot of the government again and then we’ll go from there.”

When asked if he agreed to the compromise with Johnson, Thune said the two men texted.

“I don’t know what the House will do,” the senator said Friday morning as the deal was reached.

But when House Republicans became aware of the news, their outrage was quick.

Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., said that during a GOP conference call that morning to discuss the path forward, a few dozen members ranging from moderates to hardline conservatives spoke in opposition to what the Senate had done.

“The Senate has chickened out,” he said. “The cowards out there, just a few in the middle of the night with, I think, only three to five senators present on the floor, chickened out because they wanted to go home for two weeks. We need to raise the bar.”

What’s next for the Republicans?

This bitter division threatens to make it more difficult for Republican leaders trying to advance their priorities while maintaining guaranteed control of both chambers. Trump has said legislation to impose strict new requirements for proof of citizenship when voting is his top priority, but there is no real path forward for that plan in the Senate, with its 60-vote threshold to advance the legislation.

Some Republicans have instead pushed for a budget package that could potentially implement parts of the voter ID law. Republicans are also considering how to pass an expected White House request to fund the war with Iran that could total more than $200 billion, among other priorities.

Meanwhile, the failed funding deal gave Democrats another chance to blame the partial shutdown on House Republicans.

“They know this is a continuation of the shutdown because the Senate is gone,” said Massachusetts Rep. Katherine Clark, the No. 2 Democratic leader. “So they know very well what they are doing.”

It’s unclear what the Senate will do next. A rapid resumption of negotiations is unlikely. The negotiations ended in acrimony with both sides accusing the other of moving the goalposts along the way.

Schumer said he was proud of his caucus for “staying the course.” But Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who heads the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Democrats were “intransigent and unreasonable.”

Thune said he believes Democrats never wanted a deal and would not vote to defund ICE under any circumstances.

“I felt like from the beginning, they just didn’t want to get to ‘yes,’” Thune said after the vote.

Energetic left-wing senators were convinced that the agreement was the only way to overcome their disagreements and reopen DHS.

But on Friday night, House Republicans seemed to rejoice in the fact that they had defied the Senate’s wishes. GOP members said they were working from a perspective closer to the will of their constituents.

For Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., the Senate’s proposal was “nothing more than unconditional capitulation disguised as a solution.” She said the House “will not bend into submission and acquiesce.”

Those looking for a way out of the shutdown seemed discouraged.

“It takes two chambers to get the job done,” said Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a moderate Republican. “Apparently there is not enough communication between these rooms.”