Senators say they are concerned that a bicameral dispute over the appropriations bill funding the Department of Homeland Security could derail efforts to avert a government shutdown.
The House and Senate have until March 22 to pass the final six of the 12 appropriations bills that fund the government and narrowly averted a partial shutdown by passing the first set of six last week. Appropriators are struggling to reach a deal on the six remaining bills, which fund the Pentagon, State Department, Labor Department, Health and Human Services Department, DHS, and foreign operations.
“My information is they’ve made a little progress, but they’re not there,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), who serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, told the Washington Examiner on Thursday.
“The negotiations are ongoing right now, and on the defense appropriations we are making excellent progress. I’ve been concentrating on the first package to get that done,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), the top Republican on Appropriations, told reporters last week.
“Obviously, the bill that’s going to be most difficult is Homeland, but that’s been the case all along,” she added. “So we’ll have to see [what happens].”
“I worry about it. Obviously, homeland is a difficult bill,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), who chairs the Appropriations Homeland Security subcommittee, said. “Republicans in the House basically refuse to negotiate at the subcommittee level, so all of that is with leadership.”
Disputes between House Republicans and the Senate over immigration and defense policy are the primary catalyst for the delay, with appropriators in the lower chamber demanding the Senate and White House agree to a series of demands.
House leaders want the Biden administration to resume construction of the border wall and reinstitute the Remain in Mexico policy established under former President Donald Trump. They also want to eliminate Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s salary from the department’s budget and end funding for the Biden administration’s CBP One application, which the agency uses to process migrants being paroled into the country.
Democrats have rebuffed such requests, and talks continue.
Asked late last month if he thought the problems could be resolved by the March 22 deadline, Murphy said the onus was on House Republicans.
“Republicans are gonna have to give up their riders,” Murphy said. “This is a budget bill. This is not a policy bill. These riders can’t pass, they know they can’t pass. It will be up to Republicans whether they want to shut down the government or not.”
Another dispute that has come up is the issue of funding for the United Nations Relief and Work Agency, which provides aid for refugees globally. The agency has come under fire after employees of the Gaza chapter were fired following credible accusations that they participated in the planning of Oct. 7.
“The other issue that has arisen is the aid to the United Nations Relief Agency, which is clearly on the side of Hamas,” Kennedy said. “That is going to be a major sticking point.”
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Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), who also sits on the Appropriations Committee, told reporters on Thursday that he wanted to separate the funding for UNRWA Gaza from the other chapters of the agency.
“I traveled to Jordan, Lebanon, as well as Israel, Iraq, and Oman two weeks ago. In Jordan, UNRWA provides shelter, healthcare, education, sanitation for two and a half million Palestinians who live in 10 different camps,” Coons said. “I would like to see a conditional review of UNRWA Gaza and a continuation of funding of the rest of them.”
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‘Difficult’ talks to avoid shutdown hit snags in Congress over immigration and UNRWA - Washington Examiner
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