WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security has been shut down for more than two weeks, jeopardizing airport security, disaster relief, coastline safety and even pay for members of the Secret Service as they guarded the president during the State of the Union.
The Trump administration sent its latest proposal to Senate Democrats to reopen the agency on Feb. 27, but the negotiations between the White House and Capitol Hill have been happening largely behind closed doors.
There's still no end in sight to the funding impasse. Members of both parties have continued talking past each other, at least publicly, in recent days. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, told reporters Feb. 25 the Trump administration had yet to start negotiating earnestly about demands to reform federal immigration enforcement.
Hours later, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, contradicted Murray, pointing to the fact that top administration officials and Senate Democrats were trading paper.
"The White House, I think, has been, in good faith, trying to come to the table and work out some of the differences that the Democrats have," he said, "but in ways that don't jeopardize or undermine the ability of our law enforcement officials to do their jobs, and do them in a way that keeps them safe."
