White House reviews Democratic offer to reopen Homeland Security

White House negotiators are reviewing a Democratic proposal to fund and reopen the Department of Homeland Security, but the talks are inching along and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said Democrats aren’t serious about getting a deal soon.

The White House submitted its last offer to Senate Democrats more than two weeks ago, and Democrats didn’t share their counteroffer with the Trump administration until late Monday evening, according to Republicans familiar with the talks.

A White House official confirmed Democrats sent a counteroffer late Monday and said the White House is reviewing it.

Thune told reporters Tuesday that the White House is willing to make significant concessions to reopen the Homeland Security Department and resume paying Transportation Security Administration agents and other critical employees.

“I was going over last night some of the gives that the White House had made that went above and beyond any initial offers that they put out there, and there’s a lot of stuff in there,” Thune told reporters Tuesday.

He said that White House negotiators have agreed to increase the amount of money for body cameras for federal immigration enforcement officials from $20 million to $100 million.

Thune said that White House officials also proposed having audits by the inspector general to screen for “noncompliance” and “a whole bunch of stuff” that “have been significant gives on the part of the White House.”

“But the Democrats seem intent on dragging out this political issue,” he added.

Thune noted that it took 18 days for Democrats to respond to the last White House offer to reopen the Department of Homeland Security.

“What they want to do is they want to defund law enforcement. They want to defund ICE, and they want to defund CBP,” he said, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.

“We got to have a meaningful conversation where we sit down at the table and actually work these issues out,” he added. “You can’t get there if you’re not sitting down at the table.”

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