By Chase Smith
For two days this week, senators took turns proposing ways to end the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. For two days, each proposal was immediately killed by the other party.
The March 11–12 floor fight made one thing clear: Democrats and Republicans are not close to a deal, and the nearly monthlong shutdown shows no signs of ending soon. The Senate adjourned on March 12 and is not scheduled to return until March 16.
The dispute centers on a single question—whether Congress should keep funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) without first requiring changes to how those agencies operate. Democrats say no. Republicans say the agencies cannot be separated from the rest of DHS.
While that argument plays out, remaining unfunded are the agencies that both sides say they want to fund—the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
On the Senate floor on March 11, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) cited a CBS News report that found more than 300 TSA officers had quit since the shutdown began on Feb. 14, and that unscheduled absences had more than doubled.
“CBS News reported last night on what that means,” Barrasso said on the floor. “Unscheduled absences have doubled in the shutdown. Hundreds of qualified, experienced agents have quit.”
Meanwhile, ICE and CBP, the agencies at the center of the dispute, have continued operating largely unaffected.
Both secured funding through 2029 under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law last July. That law provided DHS with $165 billion in appropriations and enough detention capacity to maintain an average daily population of 100,000, according to a DHS news release last summer after the bill was passed.
What Democrats Want
Democrats say they will not vote to extend funding for ICE and CBP until Congress passes reforms to how those agencies conduct enforcement operations. Their demands stem from the fatal shootings earlier this year of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both U.S. citizens, during protests against an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis.
On Feb. 3, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) laying out 10 conditions.
The letter called for a judicial warrant before agents can enter private property, mandatory body cameras, a ban on face coverings during enforcement operations, required display of agent identification, and prohibitions on enforcement near churches, schools, medical facilities, and polling places.
“We all know that we do not have agreement on how to deal with ICE,” Schumer said on the floor on March 12. “Democrats just want ICE to behave like any police department in America and use warrants and not wear masks.”
Democrats tried two approaches over the two days. On March 11, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), vice chair of the Appropriations Committee, introduced a bill to fund all DHS agencies except ICE, CBP, and the DHS secretary’s office. Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) blocked it.
“Democrats are not going to write a blank check for rogue agencies that are trampling on the rights of Americans,” Murray said on the floor Wednesday.
When that failed, Democrats switched tactics on March 12. They introduced separate, individual bills to fund TSA, CISA, the Coast Guard, and FEMA one at a time—each stripped of any additional ICE or CBP funding. Republicans blocked all four.
What Republicans Want
Republicans want DHS funded in full—all agencies together—through either the fiscal year 2026 appropriations bill or a short-term continuing resolution that would keep the entire department running while talks continue. They say splitting the department apart sets a dangerous precedent and leaves critical functions unfunded.
“We have tried repeatedly to fund everything temporarily to allow the negotiations over the ICE budget to continue,” Thune said on the floor March 12.
Barrasso accused Democrats of dismantling the department that was created after Sept. 11 to protect the homeland.
“And what are the Democrats doing today? They’re coming to the floor to peel it apart,” he said on March 12.
Republicans also pointed to a White House reform offer sent to Democrats on Feb. 26. Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said on March 12 that the offer addressed several of the Democratic demands—including body cameras, agent identification, de-escalation training, and restrictions on enforcement near sensitive locations—and that Democrats had not responded in two weeks.
“The White House has presented a set of ideas on paper on reform,” Lankford said. “Handed them to Democrats two weeks ago.”
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) offered an assessment of why Republicans would not agree to fund the department in pieces.
“We will not let you get to that result by holding everyone else hostage,” Schmitt said March 12. “If you have a bill that you want to defund ICE with, put it on the floor. I guarantee it will be voted down.”
Where Negotiations Stand
The two sides cannot agree on whether negotiations are even happening.
Thune and Britt said they offered Democrats a meeting this week with Republican leadership and White House representatives. Thune called the refusal “borderline obnoxious” in a floor speech on March 11. Murray denied that the offer was made. “I don’t know where that came from,” Murray told Bloomberg. “What’s missing here is the White House saying they are going to send us a serious offer.”
The most candid exchange came on March 11, during a back-and-forth on the floor between Thune and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).
“We are in a negotiation. However, we are not close,” Schatz said. “The White House and Democrats in Congress have been trading paper, submitting offers back and forth.”
Thune responded that a continuing resolution—a short-term bill that extends current funding levels—would do exactly what Schatz was asking for: keep those agencies open while talks on ICE continued. He said Democrats had blocked that approach multiple times.
Schatz explained why.
“Americans have been killed by an agency that now has more funding than most militaries around the world, more funding than the United States Marine Corps,” Schatz said. “And there are a lot of us who are not going to provide resources to this agency that is acting in such a way that makes citizens of the United States so unsafe.”
Republicans repeatedly cited a remark Schatz made to Bloomberg Government News the same day: “We are very serene with what is going on.”
Thune and Barrasso, as well as Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), each quoted Schatz’s line on the floor over the two days to argue that Democrats felt no urgency about the shutdown’s consequences.
What It Means for Workers and Travelers
With the Senate out until March 16, DHS workers face at least another long weekend without a resolution. The shutdown is the third funding lapse to affect DHS employees in recent months, following the record 43-day full government shutdown that ended in November 2025.
FEMA has scaled back to what it called “bare-minimum, life-saving operations only,” pausing all non-essential activities including public assistance for ongoing disaster recovery. Two-thirds of CISA’s cybersecurity workforce has been furloughed, Barrasso said on the floor Thursday.
Roughly 50,000 TSA officers are working without pay, several senators said on the floor over the two days.
Moreno made one of the day’s final appeals, calling on both sides to stay in Washington and negotiate.
“Imagine what that feels like—you are a dad [and] you went to work,” Moreno said. “You did your job. You didn’t do anything wrong. But you don’t have the money to pay the basic bills.”
No one took him up on the offer. The Senate adjourned shortly after.
