In a remarkable 24 hours in Washington, House Republicans snubbed a bipartisan funding deal cut by their own Senate GOP counterparts and instead approved an entirely different plan Friday — prolonging the Department of Homeland Security shutdown.
Then, they left town.
Now, there’s no end in sight for the 42-day shutdown that has hobbled airports across the country with TSA shortages. With the House GOP’s plan going nowhere in the Senate, even Republicans acknowledge it’s not clear how to end the standoff until there’s a breakthrough with at least some Democrats.
Both chambers of Congress are now out on a two-week recess.
What happens next: House Speaker Mike Johnson has insisted that President Donald Trump is on board with the House’s plan, and that he plans to alleviate TSA’s staffing woes by paying workers directly through executive order.
Privately, some GOP lawmakers and senior aides acknowledge they are pushing the party into even more treacherous political territory, with no clear plan to force Senate Democrats to accept their version of the bill and no certainty that Trump’s maneuver to unilaterally pay Transportation Security Administration employees will work.
But others told CNN there is so much anger within the House GOP that party leaders have no choice but to fight back against what they see as a massive win for Democrats, who are not showing signs of backing down.
“We are at an impasse right now,” Democratic Sen. Cory Booker said yesterday on CNN’s “First of All” with Victor Blackwell. “Now, the question is, how is Donald Trump going to work with his congressional Republicans to solve this problem that they created in the first place?”
