– The Washington Times
Congressional Republicans are warning Democrats that they will regret their push to defund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol because it sets a precedent for annual spending battles that Republicans also can exploit.
The Department of Homeland Security has been shut down since Feb. 14 because of Senate Democrats’ nearly united filibuster of immigration enforcement funding.
It set a record after surpassing the 43-day governmentwide shutdown initiated by Democrats this fall over their health care policy demands.
The hardball tactics could be turned against Democrats in future spending negotiations.
“Congressional Democrats have done real damage to the appropriations process by repeatedly forcing government shutdowns and refusing to fund entire agencies,” said Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan M. Collins, Maine Republican. “Their refusal to fund ICE and Border Patrol leaves our borders and our country less secure and sets a precedent that they may one day come to regret.”
Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee and the architect of the idea to split up Homeland Security Department funding, said the notion that it is precedent-setting is “bull——.”
“We’ve carved out stuff for food inspectors. We’ve carved out stuff for Coast Guard,” she said of past spending negotiations.
Ms. Collins’ warning to Democrats is notable, given her centrist political leanings and tendency to work across the aisle more than most others in her conference.
Some of her more conservative colleagues were even more blunt.
“What the Democrats are essentially arguing, for the first time, is that you can pull out pieces of appropriations bills,” said Sen. Eric Schmitt, Missouri Republican. “So to my friends on the other side, when USAID funding comes up, look out.
“In their Trump derangement syndrome and their hatred for ICE agents, they have opened up something that we fully intend to make the most of on behalf of the American people,” he said.
Mr. Schmitt was referring to the U.S. Agency for International Development, which distributes foreign aid and is loathed by Republicans.
Democrats found that to be an ironic example of Republican retaliation because the Trump administration tried last year to circumvent Congress and defund USAID.
“They tried to eliminate — but for a court — eliminate all of USAID just on their own,” Rep. Steny Hoyer, Maryland Democrat and a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, told The Washington Times.
As to Democrats blocking annual appropriations for immigration enforcement, he said Republicans have funded 86% of ICE and 85% of Border Patrol through the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation process.
“Republicans already did an end run around the appropriation process,” Mr. Hoyer said. “So am I concerned about that? Yes.”
Republican leaders reluctantly agreed to the Democrats’ suggestion to split up Homeland Security Department funding because they knew they could increase the immigration enforcement funding in a second reconciliation package.
A Senate-passed bill fully funds eight of the 10 agencies within the Homeland Security Department but includes no funding for ICE or Border Patrol functions within Customs and Border Protection.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota, who made restoring a regular appropriations process the centerpiece of his campaign to lead Senate Republicans, said it was “regrettable” that Democrats held the process hostage to appease “their anti-law-enforcement, open-borders, defund-the-police wing.”
“We’re stuck in a spot that’s just not good for the country or the future of the appropriations process, or, for that matter, the future of the Senate,” Mr. Thune said.
The partisan sniping has reached the point that some Republicans say they should consider expanding their use of the budget reconciliation process to approve mandatory appropriations when Democrats block discretionary funding for their priorities.
Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that Republicans should prepare “a standby reconciliation appropriation process” after quickly passing a party-line bill to fund ICE and the Border Patrol.
He said it should be ready at the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1, “when the appropriation process breaks down because of Democrat obstructionism again.”
Rep. Henry Cuellar, Texas Democrat, said that if his party takes control of the House after the November elections, they will try to move the funding Republicans approve through reconciliation back under the purview of the Appropriations Committee.
Republicans considered using reconciliation to supplement the appropriations process after Democrats provided a multiyear funding boost for the IRS in their 2022 reconciliation bill, the Inflation Reduction Act.
Democrats deployed their shutdown tactics after Republicans spent years doing the same, including the 2013 shutdown in which the right wing of the party unsuccessfully tried to defund Obamacare.
“I don’t know if anything’s precedent-setting anymore,” Rep. Dan Newhouse, a Washington Republican on the Appropriations Committee, told The Times.
He said both parties should honor bipartisan appropriations agreements “instead of taking things out one thing at a time just to use it as leverage.”
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.
