GOP divisions on display as Johnson rejects Thune-backed Senate DHS deal

The move by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House GOP leaders to forcefully reject a Senate deal to fund the bulk of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that was backed by Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) is putting Republican division on display.

Johnson on Friday showed rare anger as he slammed the Senate deal, which the chamber passed by unanimous consent in the wee hours of Friday morning, with only a few senators on the floor, before breaking for a two-week recess.

The deal set up a two-step process that would have immediately funded the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Coast Guard, but required Republicans to fund Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and border enforcement operations at a later date.

“This gambit that was done last night is a joke,” Johnson said. “I’m quite convinced that it can’t be that every Senate Republican read the language of this bill.”

The division in one sense was an example of the classic tension between the House and Senate, neither of which wants to get jammed by the other chamber. But it also put a spotlight on the GOP leaders being out-of-sync, even as they will have to work together to muscle any shutdown solution through their respective chambers.

Asked about whether he was on the same page with Thune, Johnson downplayed his counterpart’s responsibility for the deal.

“I wouldn’t call John Thune the engineer of this,” Johnson said. “[Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer [D-N.Y.] and the Democrats in the Senate have forced this upon the Senate.”

Yet it is Thune who controls the Senate floor, and who sponsored the amendment to the DHS funding bill that omitted ICE and Border Patrol funding — a split similar to what Democrats have pitched for weeks as they refuse to fund immigration enforcement unless they get significant reforms. Thune told reporters he went with the strategy after Democrats rejected the Senate GOP’s “last and final offer” for ICE reforms, calling it “unfortunate.”

Johnson said late Friday night that he had given Thune a heads up that the House GOP would reject the Senate deal. 

“I told him, it shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody that we would not be able to do that,” Johnson said. He said the two had a “good talk today, and we both lamented the situation.”

A similar deal floated in the Senate to separate ICE funding had fallen apart earlier in the week. And before that, GOP leaders had slammed splitting off ICE and Border Patrol funding as a move to “defund the police.”

The early Friday deal blindsided many in the House. Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), the No. 4 Republican who chairs the House GOP Conference, said that she was “shocked” to wake up at 5:30 a.m. and see that the Senate had passed the bill.

“We’ve been consistent in our position that we don’t want open borders. We want to make sure that the American people are safe and our borders remain closed,” McClain said. “That’s been our position since day one.”

Asked about trouble working with the Senate, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said that they are in “very different places than the Senate right now.”

News of the Senate deal’s passage Friday morning prompted immediate questions about whether House GOP leaders could push it through the House, given expected opposition from hardline conservatives and procedural hurdles. The House Freedom Caucus quickly lashed out and said its members would not support the Senate deal, calling for DHS funding that includes border patrol and a voter ID requirement.

President Trump, meanwhile, was on the sidelines and had not endorsed the Senate deal — giving GOP leaders no incentive to defy their most rebellious members and try to work with House Democrats to pass the Senate bill.

Trump, in fact, later criticized the Senate deal — saying in a phone interview with Fox News, that the bill “wasn’t appropriate,” and calling on the Senate to end the filibuster.

Johnson said that he had talked to Trump before announcing Friday afternoon that the House would reject the Senate deal and instead pursue an eight-week stopgap for DHS, which is unlikely to pass in the Senate.

“He understands exactly what we’re doing,” Johnson said of Trump when announcing the DHS continuing resolution (CR).

Scalise said that as Senate Republicans find out more about the deal that passed the chamber, they “are probably hoping we bail them out by sending over the CR that funds everything.”

The move to reject the Senate deal does pose some risk for House Republicans if voters, who awoke Friday to news that the upper chamber had passed a DHS funding bill, blame them for rejecting a bipartisan offramp.

Some more moderate GOP members raised that concern on a conference call Friday, according to a source on the call. The House also has a two-week recess scheduled.

But House Republicans are likely to get far less pressure from the public due to Trump’s executive order directing DHS to find the funds to pay TSA agents. The public had mostly felt the impact of the shutdown at airports from unpaid TSA workers calling out or resigning in droves, resulting in lengthy security lines. If the airport pressure is alleviated, the public might not notice much of a difference.

The House GOP also objected to the Senate deal based on worries it would encourage future shutdowns. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) warned GOP members on a conference call that it would set a dangerous precedent to defund entire programs in appropriations bills as the Senate bill did, setting the stage for more shutdowns.

That posture won Johnson and GOP leaders high praise from Freedom Caucus members and other hardline conservative who have often defied, pressured, and clashed with the leadership.

“I’m so proud of speaker Mike Johnson and leader Steve Scalise, with Tom Emmer, Chairwoman Lisa McClain, in taking this hard stance,” said Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), a Freedom Caucus member. 

“The Senate leadership has been jamming our House leadership this entire Congress,” Boebert said. “It’s past time that they understand that we have some authority in this legislative branch as well.”

Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) said that this is the “scrappy” Johnson he knew from when the Speaker was a rank-and-file member. 

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