It took more than two months, but Congress ended the shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security last week, approving the same plan Democrats proposed in February. The final deal funded the entirety of DHS, except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, which Democrats insist on reforming.
For the minority party, it was a victory of sorts — nearly all of the congressional Democrats stood firm, and GOP leaders ultimately accepted what Democratic leaders put on the table months earlier — but Republicans took the deal knowing that they planned to address ICE and CBP funding in a separate package, which they would advance through the budget reconciliation process, which would circumvent the 60-vote threshold in the Senate.
It was against this backdrop that GOP lawmakers unveiled the details of their reconciliation bill, which included an unexpected element. NBC News reported:
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, [on Monday night] released his committee’s part of the long-term Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol funding bill, which includes $1 billion for security features related to the White House ballroom.
The funding could not be used for non-security elements, according to the legislative text.
To be sure, the proposal isn’t just about the ballroom. On the contrary, Republicans are pushing a $72 billion reconciliation package that includes, among other things, more than $38 billion for ICE, roughly $26 billion for CBP and an additional $5 billion for DHS.
To the surprise of no one, the bill also ignores the reform measures Democrats began pushing after the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota.
Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
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