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Angus King sees Katie Britt as pretty reasonable. So he was surprised to see her reject Democrats’ proposed changes to immigration enforcement as a “ridiculous Christmas list.”
The Maine independent senator texted his Alabama Republican colleague, who chairs the chamber’s Department of Homeland Security funding panel, on Thursday: “What is it you think is ridiculous?”
“That’s not a very productive response. The list is pretty reasonable,” King told Semafor, citing his party’s push for no mask-wearing by immigration agents, stricter warrant rules, and a ban on enforcement agents at schools.
“And if they want to debate and say, ‘Well, we think less of this and more of that, or whatever,’ that’s fine. They should engage,” he added. “To say that list is ridiculous — which is a word she used — is ridiculous.”
Britt responded by chastising Democrats for taking too long to communicate their demands ahead of a Feb. 13 deadline to fund DHS and said no one in the party is engaging in talks.
“Respectfully, he’s entitled to his own opinion, but he’s not entitled to his own facts,” she said.
It’s an inauspicious start to yet another bipartisan negotiation in Congress, this time over immigration enforcement. After federal agents killed two US citizens in Minnesota, DHS is at the top of Capitol Hill’s priority list — but as Congress lurches from one shutdown fight to another, an immigration deal looks no more achievable than the health care solution that the parties haggled over unsuccessfully for months.
The lead GOP negotiator for reviving expired health care subsidies, Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, confirmed on Thursday that those talks are over. He blamed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for preferring “to use the suffering of the American people as a political issue rather than solve a problem.”
Both parties have similar doubts about clinching any bipartisan accord on immigration enforcement.
And plenty of them are already worried about another shutdown, potentially the third of this Congress, on Feb. 13 when DHS funding expires. The year-old Republican Congress has shown limited ability to pass major bipartisan legislation unless President Donald Trump gets directly involved, with a handful of exceptions like the Laken Riley Act and a Stablecoin bill.
“I would just describe this place as an institution that once could solve the biggest problems facing Americans, and right now is so divided by politics that Team Normal can’t get together and figure things out,” said Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., new to her post after three House terms. “I’m looking for as many members of Team Normal as I can find.”
She’s pitching an approach to fund almost all of DHS, including the Coast Guard and airport security, while isolating Immigration and Customs Enforcement as its own unique funding problem.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, called that idea “interesting” but she’d prefer to see the moribund Congress awaken.
“The Senate needs to meet the moment. It’s hard,” Murkowski said. “But I think we have a responsibility to finish up all our appropriations bills — and that includes Homeland — as hard and as emotionally and politically charged as it is right now.”
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Just a few days ago, the Senate still seemed close to a deal on those health care subsidies. Now everyone agrees that the issue is pretty much dead. Republicans want new guardrails on federal funding for abortion; Democrats say it’s unnecessary because current law already does that; and negotiations have fallen apart.
“We can’t succeed if this becomes about abortion as opposed to extending health care,” said Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt. ”
It’s easy to see immigration getting hung up in the same manner. Democrats made 10 demands on Wednesday evening, including the three that King described.
Republicans have already panned barring masks over fears that officers and their families would get doxxed. Speaker Mike Johnson said getting judicial warrants for enforcement is “unworkable.”
In addition, the GOP wants to ban the existence of so-called sanctuary cities that don’t cooperate with federal immigration enforcement — a move Democrats will not make.
“If we agree to every one of Chuck’s conditions, I think, first he would faint with surprise. Secondly, I don’t think any Democrat will support funding ICE,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La.
Republicans are already preparing a short funding bill to at least buy more time, but it could be challenging to find the eight or more Senate Democratic votes needed to do that.
Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., is among those who say they won’t support any more stopgap bills.
He said that “there can be a deal,” but it would require Republicans “to realize where the American public is. And the American public wants ICE agents to be treated the same way we treat local police officers.
“Until we see that, I don’t think we’re going to see much support for anything,” Gallego added.
Room for Disagreement
Despite the record-breaking 43-day shutdown in the fall, followed by the four-day partial shutdown that ended earlier this week. Congress did finish 11 of its 12 appropriations bills.
Members of the congressional spending committees, like Murkowski, see it as a small but meaningful sign of bipartisan progress.
“Talk about muscle memory. They doubted us, didn’t they?” she said, with a hint of sarcasm.
Burgess’s view
Right now you’re watching Congress pay the price for the GOP’s party-line focus throughout 2025.
Plus, the Hill simply has few experienced deal-cutters left in the rank-and-file after an ongoing centrist exodus from Washington. Republican leaders must stay closely aligned with Trump, of course, while Schumer and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are under enormous pressure to resist the president.
That doesn’t leave much room for maneuvering. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Moreno are trying to step into the void, but it’s hard to do that without some blessing from party leaders. It’s possible that those bipartisan spending bills end up being some of the top aisle-crossing accomplishments of 2026.
Notable
- We reported extensively last year on the difficult path that bipartisan cryptocurrency legislation — one exception to the rule — took to becoming law.