US Senate Minority Leader Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaks during a news briefing following a weekly Senate Democratic luncheon at the US Capitol on March 24, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Alex Wong | getty images
Republicans blocked a Democratic counterproposal to reopen the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday, as lawmakers and the White House scrambled to reach an agreement before the start of a two-week recess scheduled for Friday ahead of the busy U.S. travel week for spring break and Easter holidays.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. told reporters on Wednesday that it “makes no sense” for Republicans to issue another response in response to Democrats and said the Senate would vote later that day on the GOP resolution introduced earlier this week.
“It’s not even close to being realistic,” Thune said of the counterproposal. “They know better. They’re asking for things that have already been rejected. So it seems like they’re going round and round and round and round.”
The back-and-forth between Hill Republicans and Democrats means a potential agreement before the weekend is not certain. The optimism that started the week began to wane by Wednesday, with airport security lines growing longer and lawmakers seemingly deadlocked.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said from the Senate floor Wednesday morning that Democrats were looking for a solution. He called the Republicans’ latest offer “bad faith” and announced retaliation.
“Our proposal is a reasonable, good-faith proposal that addresses some of the same questions that Democrats have been talking about for many months,” Schumer said.
Schumer did not list specific points of his proposal, but Democrats have been demanding changes to Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s immigration enforcement practices for months. Those changes include requiring a judicial warrant for federal agents to enter private property and a ban on the use of masks.
“We have now submitted our response to Republicans, and it is a serious proposal. And I would say to my Republican colleagues that timing is of the essence,” Schumer said. “The Easter holidays are coming, families are going on spring break. TSA lines literally stretch out the door to the airports.”
The response comes after Senate Republicans and the White House unveiled a proposal earlier this week that calls for defunding much of the agency while freezing funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s enforcement and removal operations.
Democrats bristled at the proposal because it did not include any of the ICE changes they sought. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, a moderate who sides with the Democrats and who has voted with Republicans on government funding, said Wednesday he’s still “no.” King called the GOP proposal “illusory” because it would still fund ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations Division, which he said is engaged in enforcement and removal operations.
In response, Republicans said that Democrats had shifted the goal posts.
Senator John Hoeven, R-N.D. Said that Democrats should “stop screwing around” on DHS funding. And from the Senate floor on Wednesday, Thune rejected an existing GOP proposal that would have included a Republican-led effort to create an ICE fund in addition to the first round of DHS funding and a second legislative package to pass the Save America Act, a Trump-based voter-ID bill.
“Democrats have repeatedly said they want to pay more for TSA, the Coast Guard, FEMA, and the workers who protect America from cyberattacks,” Thune said. “This bill will do that. I hope Democrats will work with us to finalize a deal and reopen the Department of Homeland Security this week.”
DHS has been closed since February. Transportation Security Administration agents have missed pay checks and are not showing up to work, causing huge lines at airports across the country. Trump this week began deploying ICE agents to airports to assist TSA agents.
Democrats refused to fund the agency after federal agents killed American citizens during an immigration surge in Minneapolis in January. He has repeatedly forced a vote to fund all of DHS except ICE, which Republicans have opposed.
Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., said frustration was growing Wednesday.
Lankford said, “We literally made the offer they asked for three days ago and then all of a sudden it was like oh no, now we’ve got new stuff. That’s been the story the whole time.” “It’s been a constant journey – another thing, another thing, another thing.”
Asked if he thought the Senate would go into recess, Lankford said: “No.”
— emily wilkins Contributed to this story.