Trump budget officials urge House Republicans to concede in DHS standoff

By Sarah Ferris, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump’s budget office sent a memo to Capitol Hill on Tuesday evening urging House Republicans to agree to partly reopen the Department of Homeland Security – even without new cash for immigration enforcement.

The existence of the memo, which was confirmed by a person familiar with its contents, could amount to a major development in the monthslong impasse around DHS funding.

Trump officials are now telling House Republicans to accept a compromise measure from the Senate, which does not include money for ICE or border patrol, to ensure that workers do not go unpaid. Many House Republicans have so far refused to pass any DHS funding without simultaneously approving another funding bill for ICE.

The pressure from the White House comes as House Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to say whether he will put that partial, Senate-passed DHS funding bill on the floor this week before the House leaves for a weeklong recess.

The speaker told CNN on Monday that legislation has “some problematic language because it was haphazardly drafted,” indicating House Republicans want technical changes to the package.

Resolving the 73-day shutdown – already the longest in history – has proved a steep task for Johnson, and the issue has further divided his already fractious House GOP.

The party is bitterly split with conservatives furious that Senate Majority Leader John Thune agreed to Democratic demands to only partially fund the department. In response, House Republicans are scrambling to pass a separate – and legislatively complex – package focused on funding immigration enforcement and border patrol without Democratic support.

Johnson previously indicated that he would not take up the partial DHS funding bill until House Republicans take a separate vote teeing up that complicated process, known as budget reconciliation, which is expected to take weeks.

The memo from the budget office, which Punchbowl News first reported, comes as the delay in funding has raised concerns with some of the GOP’s national security hawks, who worry that the Department of Homeland Security will out of money within days. (The White House had temporarily paid some key staff, including the Transportation Security Administration, using a rainy day fund, but that is almost dry.)

Those Republicans have warned that the House needs to act on the Senate-passed bill as soon as possible – and certainly before the chamber leaves next week for recess.

But even if Johnson were to bring the bill to the floor, it could still face steep odds.

A senior House Republican told CNN on Tuesday that the votes simply don’t exist to partly end the DHS shutdown this week without having money “in hand” for federal immigration enforcement.

“No one is going to vote to fund Homeland without money for ICE and CBP,” said Rep. Jodey Arrington of Texas, who leads the House Budget Committee.

The remarks from Arrington — a retiring Republican who is respected among the party’s ultraconservative wing — signify the massive road block that Congress is facing to end the shutdown.

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