President Donald Trump voiced his opposition to the bipartisan Senate deal passed early Friday morning to end the Department of Homeland Security shutdown.
Trump told Fox News on Friday afternoon that “it wasn’t good. It wasn’t appropriate,” specifically mentioning how the proposal does not fund ICE and Border Patrol as part of the agreement.
“You can’t have a bill that’s not going to fund any form of law enforcement … This whole thing is about the Democrats wanting to have open borders, no ICE, no border patrol. These people are crazy,” he said, according to the outlet.
The president has repeatedly called for an end to the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster rule to move legislation forward, including DHS appropriations and the SAVE America Act, which is a voter identification bill.
Trump’s comments come after Speaker Mike Johnson and many other House Republicans trashed the Senate proposal and the subsequent departure of senators for a two-week recess for Easter.
Johnson will instead push for a continuing resolution until May 22, which would temporarily fund all of DHS while a longer-term solution for the remainder of the fiscal year is negotiated.
“They’ve gone half the fiscal year without a regular paycheck; we cannot ask that of anyone,” Johnson said in reference to TSA officers, who have dealt with the brunt of both the full federal government shutdown last fall and the current shutdown.
Trump signed an order on Friday to pay TSA agents, as travelers have faced long wait times at airports nationwide due to officer callouts and resignations.
“Republicans will do the responsible and honorable thing, and Democrats will continue to play politics,” Johnson told reporters on Friday.
However, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has already called the possibility of a continuing resolution “dead on arrival.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said his caucus plans to back the bipartisan Senate proposal, saying Republicans have sought to “create chaos” at airports nationwide.
“House Democrats are prepared to support the bill to end the Trump-Republican shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security,” Jeffries said at a press conference on Friday afternoon.
If the House of Representatives passes anything other than the Senate deal without additional amendments, it would have to return to the Senate before it could go to the president’s desk for his signature or veto.
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