House Speaker Mike Johnson tried to play tough after the Senate passed a bill to defund DHS without any funding for ICE and Border Patrol.
Instead, Johnson and House Republicans passed a 60-day continuing resolution after senators left the Capitol for the Easter recess.
Johnson insisted that the House majority would not pass any bill that did not contain funding for ICE and the Border Patrol.
Then, with Trump seemingly unable to continue paying TSA workers, Johnson completely caved.
Less than a week later, here’s how Johnson changed his mind in a joint statement with Senate Majority Leader Thune:
We appreciate and share the President’s determination to end the Democratic DHS shutdown once and for all. In the coming days, Senate and House Republicans will follow through on the President’s directive by fully funding the entire Department of Homeland Security on two parallel tracks: through the appropriations process and through the reconciliation process.
We appreciate that Senator Graham and the Senate Budget Committee have already begun the process of developing a budget resolution that will ensure that border security and immigration enforcement are funded for the remainder of the Trump Administration and protected from future attempts by Democrats to defund these agencies. We have operated with the belief that, even though our country is in the midst of an international armed conflict, Democrats might finally come to their senses and understand that defunding our homeland security agencies is beyond reckless and very dangerous.
The problem is that Johnson does not currently have the votes in the House to pass a reconciliation bill.
It’s still unclear how Republicans will pass a reconciliation bill, but that hasn’t stopped Johnson and Thune from blaming Democrats for their cavern.