Evidence of the ongoing funding lapse at the Department of Homeland Security will mount this week, putting pressure on negotiators at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue to strike a bipartisan accord to end the partial shutdown.
Federal workers will miss out on pay this week for the first time since DHS’s discretionary spending lapsed, turning a Capitol building filled with lawmakers fresh off recess and primed for President Donald Trump’s State of the Union into a high-wattage forum for debating the future of immigration enforcement funding and policy.
DHS and its diverse array of security-related agencies are entering their second week of operations without annual funding authority, the third time since October Congress has let those appropriations lapse.
Senate Democrats have balked at funding DHS after Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents killed two Americans in Minnesota. Senate Minority Leader
“Republicans have made concessions, but don’t think they have gotten far enough,” said Rep.
Primetime Messaging
Members of Congress are returning to Washington from a week-long recess that coincided with the first days of the shutdown, unlocking leaders’ ability to schedule votes if a deal comes to fruition.
Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday will offer him a prime-time opportunity to lambast Democrats. The speech will give Republicans a chance to build popular support for their opposition to Democrats’ demands during negotiations.
Trump has not had any direct conversations with Democratic leaders on the Hill since lawmakers left town and is shifting more blame to them, said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“Democrats are the reason that the Department of Homeland Security is currently shut down,” Leavitt told reporters last week. “Now we have FEMA workers, the men and women of the United States Coast Guard, men and women of TSA who keep our airports moving, who will be working without paychecks for no good reason other than the Democrats wanting to pick a fight with Donald Trump.”
Progressives plan to skip the speech to host their own counterprogramming that will highlight Americans killed by immigration enforcement agents.
“Donald Trump will use the State of the Union address as a platform to gaslight the American people and normalize and justify their terror, abuse, and violations of our rights,” said Rep.
Missed Pay
Workers who got lawmakers to Washington are starting to pay the price for the inaction. Thousands of DHS workers will miss all or part of their paycheck due Friday, regardless of whether they’re on the job.
Employees at the Transportation Security Administration will get a partial paycheck this week and will miss their next one entirely absent congressional action, according to a spokesperson for their union, the American Federation of Government Employees.
Funding lapses increase the likelihood that personnel will call out of work, threatening flight delays, trade associations representing the travel industry said in a statement earlier this month.
Overall, more than 90% of DHS employees were projected to be kept on the job in event of a shutdown in the most recent contingency plan issued in September.
“The pain here will be felt by the men and women of TSA who will once again work to keep our airways safe without a paycheck,” Rep.
Republicans from districts with large Coast Guard populations urged Trump on Friday to “use every authority at your disposal to ensure that these dedicated servicemembers do not miss a paycheck” this week.
Roughly one-fifth of employees working during a shutdown get paid from other pots of money, according to DHS’s September guidance.
Operational Changes
DHS announced Sunday it was halting some operations, including all non-disaster related responses and lawmakers’ airport police escorts. Global Entry travelers also lost their dedicated lanes for border processing.
“The Trump administration is choosing to inflict pain on the public instead of adopting common sense ICE reforms,” Schumer said, pointing out Global Entry remained unchanged during last year’s shutdown.
ICE and Customs and Border Protection activity is expected to continue thanks to tens of billions of dollars apiece from Republicans’ tax-and-spending law Trump signed last year, and their agents will continue to get paid from those sources.
FEMA also had at least $7.1 billion in its Disaster Relief Fund at its disposal as of Jan. 26, according to the Congressional Research Service. But that funding was expected to dwindle to just $1.7 billion by the end of September, according to its pre-shutdown projections.
FEMA did not immediately return a request for comment, warning in an automated response the shutdown would likely delay their answer.
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