DHS Shutdown Enters Record Territory as Congress Heads Home Without a Deal

The Department of Homeland Security entered its 45th day of shutdown this morning, now the longest federal government shutdown on record, with lawmakers pointing fingers at each other rather than working toward a solution.

Congress left town Friday after House Republicans refused to bring to the floor a bill that passed the Senate unanimously, which would have funded most of the agency outside of Border Patrol and ICE. Speaker Johnson called the bipartisan Senate deal a "gimmick," saying, "We can't have any part of it. This gambit that was done last night is a joke." Instead, the House narrowly passed a short-term spending bill to fund the entire agency, though that bill has no realistic path to the 60 Senate votes it would need to pass.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said he will not call the Senate back into session until he is confident he has a deal that can pass. The standoff has produced growing lines at airports, which Senator Van Hollen pointed to directly, saying the "Republican Speaker of the House refused to even have a vote on that in the House and went home, as we have these big lines at airports." Senator Cotton pushed back, characterizing Democratic opposition as "a temper tantrum about deportations of violent criminal illegal aliens."

President Trump has been pressuring Senate Republicans to eliminate the legislative filibuster and pass the funding bill with Republican votes alone, though Senate Republicans have shown no appetite for that move. Trump called Senate Republicans too soft, saying, "The Democrats are sick."