Negotiations over government funding are devolving into taunts and partisan posturing as Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and his Democratic counterpart in the House, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), assign early blame for an imminent shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.
Thune told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday morning that Jeffries, who has drawn a series of red lines in funding talks, was not a “good faith” partner and that election-year politics were getting in the way of a deal to keep DHS afloat past next week.
“I mean, he’s not. He’s just not,” Thune said of Jeffries. “And I think he and, for that matter, Leader Schumer, both are afraid of their shadows, and they’re getting a lot of blowback and pressure from their left.”
“I don’t think they want to — particularly in his case, I don’t think he wants to make a deal at all,” Thune added. “I think he wants the issue.”
Thune has been in regular contact with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and found common ground with him last week when the Senate voted to keep the government funded, except for a two-week Band-Aid they passed for DHS.
But Jeffries opposed that legislation and has taken a harder stance than Schumer on DHS, with Democrats demanding new guardrails on immigration enforcement after federal agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis last month.
Most recently, Jeffries declared he would oppose a full-year bill that keeps DHS funding flat, viewed by Republicans as a “fallback” in case negotiations fall through.
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The response from Jeffries has been to accuse Thune of doing President Donald Trump’s bidding, claiming he was “ordered” to break DHS funding off from the larger government funding deal negotiated between Schumer and the White House.
“Leader Thune is afraid of his own shadow,” Jeffries said. “This is a guy who said he was not going to break up the six appropriations bills. He then broke up the six appropriations bills when he was ordered to do so by Donald Trump.”
Thune’s office shot back with a rebuttal that accused Jeffries of revisionist history, noting that Republicans agreed to split it off as a concession to Democrats.
“Ordered? What?” said Thune spokesman Ryan Wrasse. “There’s definitely a fear of shadows in this building. Leader Thune is perfectly comfortable with his.”
Thune separately addressed some of the potshots on Wednesday, telling Fox News, “I must be doing something right” to get under the skin of Jeffries.
The back-and-forth raises doubts about whether Congress can fund DHS, which is responsible for immigration operations but also airport security and emergency response management, before a Feb. 13 deadline. Jeffries told reporters that he was, in fact, negotiating in good faith, a message echoed on Wednesday morning by Democratic leaders in the Senate. But the two sides remain far apart on a possible compromise and have little time to make progress.
Jeffries says he won’t accept anything less than “bold, meaningful, and transformative” reforms to rein in Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But Republicans, in particular Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), have already ruled out his biggest requests, including tighter warrant requirements and a ban on the face masks worn by federal agents.
“Mike Johnson and John Thune aren’t working for the American people,” Jeffries said. “They work for Donald Trump, and so many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle — they function like a wholly owned subsidiary of the Trump cartel.”
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Thune said on Tuesday that it would be “impossible” to get a deal through Congress by next week, meaning DHS is likely to shut down at least briefly. That leaves a short-term patch as the only option to buy more time for negotiations, but Jeffries has already taken another extension off the table.
“We need to resolve this issue by Feb. 13,” Jeffries told the Washington Examiner.
