President Donald Trump is urging Congress to end its two-week recess early and return to Washington to address funding for the Department of Homeland Security, amid an ongoing partial shutdown, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Lawmakers departed the Capitol last week without reaching an agreement to fund the department, extending what has become the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history, thanks to Democrats’ refusal to join Republicans in passing full funding legislation for elements of DHS including the TSA and the U.S. Coast Guard.
“Has he told leadership that they should cancel recess and come back?” ABC News White House Correspondent Karen Travers asked Leavitt during Monday’s press briefing, according to affiliate ABC7 in New York City.
“He’s said it repeatedly,” Leavitt said, going on to add that the president has said “he’ll host a big Easter dinner here at the White House if Congress will come back and fight the Democrats on this issue, which we should do, because, again, [the] Democrat Party is in the wrong here.”
Although Trump publicly urged Congress last week to cancel its recess, he has not repeated that call since lawmakers left Washington on Friday.
More than 40 days into the funding impasse, there were signs of limited progress when the Senate passed a bill early Friday to fund most DHS operations, excluding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and portions of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
House Republicans rejected that measure and instead approved their own legislation to fund the department in full for 60 days. Lawmakers in both chambers ultimately adjourned without reaching a compromise and are scheduled to remain in recess until mid-April.
Republican leaders, meanwhile, are backing a new strategy from the president aimed at resolving the funding lapse at DHS and preventing similar disruptions in the future.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said the plan would fund DHS through “two parallel tracks.” Under the approach, funding for immigration and border security initiatives would be included in a reconciliation bill, while the remainder of the department’s operations would be financed through the standard appropriations process, Fox News reported.
“We operated under a belief that while our country is in the midst of an international armed conflict, Democrats might finally come to their senses and understand that defunding our homeland security agencies is beyond reckless and very dangerous,” Johnson and Thune wrote in a joint statement. “We cannot allow Democrats to any longer put the safety of the American public at risk through their open border policies, so we are taking that off the table.”
GOP leaders have announced that a forthcoming budget reconciliation package will include three years of funding for immigration enforcement and border security. This move could limit Democrats’ ability to use the appropriations process as leverage against the president’s immigration agenda for the remainder of his term.
The push for budget reconciliation comes as Republican efforts to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) through regular legislative channels have stalled in the Senate, primarily due to strong opposition from Democrats.
Currently, the Senate’s requirement for a 60-vote threshold means that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., effectively holds veto power over Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appropriations if he maintains cohesion within his caucus, Fox noted.
To break the stalemate, Trump on Wednesday urged Republicans to draft a budget reconciliation package focused on immigration enforcement and border security that could pass both chambers without Democratic support.
“We are going to work as fast, and as focused, as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE Agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won’t be able to stop us,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “We will not allow them to hurt the families of these Great Patriots by defunding them.”
He added he wants the bill on his desk by June 1.