The TSA crisis may be coming to a close (fingers crossed) but the wing nuts aren’t going to go down easy:
House conservatives are firing a warning shot at their Republican counterparts in the Senate as a deal begins to take shape on ending the six-week Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown.
Senate Republicans are eyeing a second “big, beautiful bill” via the budget reconciliation process aimed at funding portions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that would likely get little to no Democratic support.
That bill would also include parts of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE America) Act, legislation to require proof of citizenship to register to vote and photo ID to cast ballots in federal elections.
But a growing contingent of House Republicans who are refusing to vote for any Senate-led legislation are crying foul on that portion of the plan. “Senate Republicans refused to force a talking filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act because it would have allowed Democrats to offer unlimited amendments. Now, Senate R’s claim they will pass SAVE America Act via reconciliation (which may not even be possible under the Senate’s arcane rules), which would… checks notes …allow Democrats to offer unlimited amendments,” the conservative House Freedom Caucus said in a statement posted to X on Tuesday.
“This is gaslighting. The American people are not stupid and will not accept more failure theater from Republicans in Congress.”
Lol. This is so typical. The GOP solves a political problem that’s killing them but these far-right wing nuts won’t take yes for an answer. They demand everything on their wish list or nothing.
I guess we’ll have to see if Trump has really been persuaded that he needs to do this and if so if he’s still got the clout he thinks he has to get these hard core types to do his bidding. If I had to guess, I’d think they’ll put up a fight and then relent, giving Trump the adulation he craves. But everything depends upon Mike Johnson allowing it to be passed with a bipartisan vote anyway. If Trump wants it, he’ll get that done.
It seems highly unlikely that Trump’s ridiculous insistence on the SAVE act, which many Republicans don’t want because it will actually hurt their own voters, will pass muster as a Reconciliation Bill which may be the off-ramp the GOP is looking for. (Reconciliation is supposed to only be for items related to the budget.) It’s unknown it Trump knows this or simply thinks he can order the Senate to overrule the parliamentarian if she decides it can’t be included.
Trump’s change of heart is basically a capitulation to the Democrats although nobody wants to say that — he’s a neurotic child whose psyche is so fragile that he cannot deal with any loss and will change his mind if he feels the slightest tingle of embarrassment. It’s obvious that this can’t go on so there’s a good chance this crisis will end this week. The Democrats won.
Update — looks like the deal’s on ice:
Key negotiators circulated a potential deal Tuesday to end a five-week standoff over Department of Homeland Security funding and, among other things, pay beleaguered transportation screeners as mounting security lines snarl airports.
Nobody in Washington, however, seems too excited about it.
The framework brokered by a handful of Senate Republicans and the White House Monday got a cool reception from Senate Democrats, who said it does nothing to rein in immigration enforcement abuses at the center of the DHS funding impasse.
Conservative Republicans pushed back on the idea that some Immigration and Customs Enforcement funds would be left out of the agreement and pursued separately under the party-line reconciliation process, calling it a capitulation to Democrats.
Even President Donald Trump, who has gone back and forth on the DHS shutdown talks but hosted the White House meeting Monday evening where the latest proposal was hatched, gave the plan only a tepid endorsement in his first public comments on it Tuesday.
“We’re going to take a good hard look at it,” he said in the Oval Office, later adding, “They are getting fairly close. But I think any deal they make, I’m pretty much not happy with it.”
I would not be surprised if the Dems opposed it as a way to get the Republicans to sign on. Or maybe they are just willing to let this go on to achieve something on the ICE front. They may see some hope for getting the body camera and mask issue.
But then you have Orange Julius Caesar saying he won’t be happy no matter what, so who knows?