House Democrats moved Wednesday to force a vote on a plan to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security — excluding border patrol and immigration enforcement — escalating their standoff with Republicans during the shutdown.
The effort, led by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and top appropriator Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), uses a discharge petition to bypass GOP leadership and bring the proposal directly to the House floor. Democrats are trying to force a vote on a spending bill that would fund DHS agencies such as the Transportation Security Administration, FEMA, the Coast Guard, and federal cybersecurity operations, but withhold funding from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.
“We have a choice: We can fund TSA, fund the Coast Guard, fund FEMA, fund our cybersecurity professionals, or continue to allow ICE to brutalize and in some cases, kill American citizens or to violently target law abiding immigrant families,” Jeffries said at a press conference on the steps of the Capitol in front of a sign that said “Pay TSA, rein in ICE.”
A discharge petition requires 218 signatories to force legislation to the House floor for a vote. The measure is a tool to circumvent the House speaker, who controls which legislation is brought to the floor. To succeed, Jeffries’ petition would need the support of at least four House Republicans, given the chamber’s narrow majority.
“Amid this continuing failure of Republican leadership, House Democrats are taking matters into our own hands, and I call on my Republican colleagues in the rank and file who know what their leadership is doing, and they know it is wrong,” said DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee. “Please join us in this effort.”
Republicans swiftly rejected the approach. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) warned that stripping funding from CBP — the nation’s largest federal law enforcement agency — would weaken border defenses and disrupt travel through U.S. ports of entry.
“CBP is the largest federal law enforcement agency,” Johnson said this week. “Any bill that strips its funding weakens our defenses against terrorist plots, undermines the integrity of our borders, and disrupts lawful travel through U.S. ports of entry, including the millions of American and international travelers processed at our airports every single day.”
The discharge petition by House Democrats was introduced one day after White House officials detailed their latest DHS funding proposal to Capitol Hill. The proposal includes requiring immigration officers to self-identify if confronted during immigration enforcement proceedings, a major sticking point for Democrats during the weekslong shutdown.
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Since the shutdown started on Feb. 14, many employees who fall under DHS have not been paid, leading hundreds to call out sick or quit. As a result, passengers at airports across the country have had to endure lengthy wait times at security checkpoints.
Senate Republicans have repeatedly voted to advance a House-passed bill that would fund DHS, but Democrats are refusing to support the legislation unless the White House makes further concessions to rein in the aggressive tactics used by federal immigration agents.
