GOP senator suggests 2-step move to break DHS funding deadlock 

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said Republicans should move to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through a two-step funding process to overcome Democratic opposition. 

The department has been shut down for more than a month as Democrats continue to demand major reforms to DHS’s immigration enforcement arms, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). 

The Louisiana Republican told Dasha Burns, the host of C-SPAN’s “Ceasefire” show, that the Senate could approve a funding bill for all agencies under DHS except for ICE and then pass a separate funding measure for the immigration agency through a reconciliation bill. 

“Let’s open up everything but ICE, OK? Let’s open it up … but I can tell you what’s going to happen next. The Republicans are going to put a reconciliation bill on the floor that requires Republican votes to fund ICE, and the Democrats don’t have the vote to stop us,” Kennedy said. 

“Now, that to me is a resolution to this,” the senator continued. “I don’t think my Democratic friends are going to like it, but that’s what’s going to happen if we do it that way.”

The reconciliation process would allow Republicans to override the Senate’s 60-vote majority requirement and only require a simple majority of 51 votes in order to pass the funding measure.

Republicans in Congress blocked a Democratic-backed Senate bill last week that would fund DHS aside from its two immigration enforcement arms, ICE and CBP.

Other affected agencies include the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the U.S. Coast Guard. 

Democrats are refusing to support a bill funding CBP and ICE until the Trump administration agrees to make several key reforms to its immigration enforcement policies. Their main demands include a mask ban for federal agents, judicial warrant reform and a universal code of conduct on officers’ use of force in the field. 

“My Democratic colleagues want to put major restrictions on ICE, some of which in my judgment would render ICE inoperable,” Kennedy said. “Now, if you ask the Democrats, they say they’re needed changes, but we’re way far apart, and I do not see a resolution right now.”

Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, ICE received about $75 billion in additional funding last summer. 

Negotiations between Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress are at a standstill after the White House sent over a letter offering several reforms at DHS; they did not meet Democrats’ specific demands.

On Thursday, President Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, met with several centrist Democratic lawmakers to discuss a path forward on the funding bill. The group did not reach a resolution, and Homan said they will “keep talking.”

The full C-SPAN interview with Kennedy will air later Friday afternoon. 

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