WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was erupting on Friday as pressure mounted to fund the Department of Homeland Security and end the government shutdown while new bipartisan legislation headed to the House.
Johnson rejected a DHS funding bill passed overnight in the Senate and called it a "joke." The legislation would exclude federal immigration enforcement agencies from the major spending bill. The vote left House Republicans fighting over the next moves just as GOP senators had left town for Easter recess. Johnson said Republicans would introduce their own funding proposal in the House and push for more funding, despite the Senate's decision, which was likely to extend the shutdown.
"Speaker Johnson is flailing," Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) told Raw Story. "And the fastest way to end the shutdown and to pay TSA workers is to take up the Senate bill."
A question remained whether House lawmakers would vote on DHS funding on Friday.
“I hope so,” House Oversight Chair Rep. James Comer (R-KY) told Raw Story.
A new bipartisan DHS funding bill backed by Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) could push the issue forward.
"It's really the only practical solution right now," Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) told Raw Story. "It fully funds DHS, but it also has significant reforms. Most of the reforms you've heard talked about, so mask removal, the requiring of warrants for criminal arrests, requiring warrants for sensitive search locations, like schools, like polling locations on Election Day — that hasn't even been talked about, that's here — churches, synagogues, hospitals, so all of those are protected."
The new legislation includes some of the terms Democrats have argued for throughout the stalemate.
"[It] creates uniformity amongst all law enforcement for training, requires identification, like I said, the removal of masks, so it does all of that and it fully funds DHS," Fitzpatrick added.
Fitzpatrick argued that this legislation addresses reforms among federal immigration agencies.
"So what the Senate sent over has no reforms. What the House is considering today has no reforms, and this whole debate's been about reforms, and nobody's offered it in either chamber. So Tom and I are introducing it today, and we're prepared to push it to the floor and force a floor vote."
Raw Story asked Fitzpatrick what the reception among his colleagues has been so far.
"I'll let you know. I mean, we just put it out today," Fitzpatrick said. "You know, we'll find out."