House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Sunday morning that his caucus will meet later in the day to map out its next steps over its demands for reforms to the Department of Homeland Security as a partial government shutdown went into its second day.
The Senate on Friday voted to separate a DHS funding bill from five others funding other agencies for the rest of the fiscal year after reaching a deal with the White House to put it off for two weeks to negotiate Democratic demands for restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement amid its immigration enforcement operation, including requiring agents to wear body cameras turned on and to not wear masks.
House Speaker Mike Johnson hoped to vote on the funding bills on Monday when the House returns under suspension of the rules, which would have required a two-thirds majority.
But on Saturday, Jeffries said Democrats will not join Republicans in expediting the passage of the Senate package, telling MSNOW, "We need a full and complete debate, and what I've made clear to House Republicans is that they cannot simply move forward with legislation taking a 'my way or the highway' approach."
Johnson told Fox News on Sunday that he is confident the package will pass by Tuesday.
"We'll have a lot of conversations to have with individual Republican members over the next 24 hours or so," Johnson said. "We'll get all this done by Tuesday, I'm convinced."
Johnson will now have to first pass the package through the House Rules Committee before it can be taken to the floor for a vote so Republicans can attempt to pass the package with a simple majority.
The committee announced Saturday that a markup on the Senate-passed funding package is set for Monday at 4 p.m. -- the first of several steps before the package can receive a full vote on the House floor. It is unclear if Johnson has the necessary GOP support to advance the package given his slim majority.
Jeffries told ABC News' "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos on Sunday that Democrats want an agreement on their demands for reforms at DHS.
"We need a robust path toward dramatic reform," he told ABC News' "This Week" on Sunday. "The administration can't just talk the talk. They need to walk the walk. That should begin today, not in two weeks."
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Sunday that Trump will be the "decider" on any policy change when it comes to immigration enforcement reforms but said he is willing to negotiate with Democrats.
"Last week, the White House invited moderate Democrat senators to come to the White House and to discuss their concerns so that we can hear them out and at least see what they are trying to put on the table," Leavitt told Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures. "Unfortunately, that meeting was blocked by their leadership, so these conversations will continue and ultimately, the president will be the decider on any policy changes."
Some Democrats questioned whether Trump really wanted change to the country's immigration enforcement policy.
Rep. Ro Khanna said he would vote against the DHS funding bill.
"I just don't see how, in good conscience, Democrats can vote for continuing ICE funding when they're killing American citizens, when there's no provision to repeal the tripling of the budget. I hope my colleagues will say no."
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy said he hasn't seen a willingness from Trump to come to the negotiating table.
Advertisement
"He's not convening any process to bring Republicans together to try to reform our laws, Murphy told "Fox News Sunday." "Donald Trump wants to use the issue of immigration to divide us from each other, to try to make us believe that our neighbors, our lawful resident neighbors, are something that we have to fear."
Republican Rep. Michael McCaul criticized Border Patrol commander at large Gregory Bovino for inflaming the ICE's immigration reform effort in Minneapolis and said he thought White House border czar Tom Homan being dispatched there could deescalate tensions.
"He put his agents in a position they should never have been put in. They have no training for crowd control. Their job is to go in and remove criminal aliens, violent felons from the United States, and get them out of here," McCaul told "Face the Nation." And so, you know, Tom Homan is a consummate professional. He's been doing this for a long time. I've known him for a long time. He's going to go back to the core mission of ICE , and that's targeted law enforcement operations, not roving the streets, causing chaos."
Last-minute Senate vote
The latest uncertainty in the government funding saga comes after the Senate met a last-minute deadline Friday to approve the revised package of government funding bills for the rest of the fiscal year.
The vote was 71-29, with only five Republicans voting against: Sens. Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Ron Johnson and Rick Scott.
The Senate voted after Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham lifted his hold after securing a commitment from Senate Majority Leader John Thune for a vote in the coming weeks on banning sanctuary cities.
Graham earlier Friday said he would lift his hold for a vote on his sanctuary cities bill and one which allows members of Congress to sue the government if federal investigators gain access to their phone records without their knowledge. Those provisions were stripped out of the funding package initially passed by the House.
Government funding negotiations hit snag after Democrats announce deal
The funding fight over DHS erupted in the aftermath of the death of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse, who was killed in a shooting involving federal law enforcement in Minneapolis over the weekend.
With Senate passage in the rear-view mirror, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer laid out the pillars of reform to the Homeland Security bill that Democrats will fight to enact over the next two weeks.
"The bottom line is very simple: the American people are crying out for change," Schumer said immediately following the Senate vote Friday evening. "This is not America, not America. And when you see those images, know that something is dramatically wrong and it must change. We are fighting to change it. Will our Republican colleagues join us now?"
With only two weeks to negotiate changes, Schumer stressed that Democrats will demand an end to roving patrols, enforce accountability and mandate masks off and body-cameras turned on.
"If our colleagues are not willing to enact real change, real strong change, they should not expect Democratic votes," Schumer said. "We have only a few days to deliver real progress for the American people, the eyes of the nation are watching."
Schumer said he intends to huddle with Thune to set the parameters of negotiations -- not necessarily President Donald Trump.
"We're going to have a group of Democrats negotiate. We're going to have to negotiate with the Republicans to get this done," Schumer said. "But as we've said over and over again, they shouldn't expect our votes if they're not willing to go along with strong legislation."
"We need Democrats and Republicans in the Senate to pass this, so I'm going to talk to Thune," he said.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Sunday morning that his caucus will meet later in the day to map out its next ...
