Tipsheet

Senate Fails to Pass House DHS Funding Bill During Today's Brief Pro Forma Session

The Senate held a pro forma session today, while most Senators are on Easter recess. There was speculation as to whether or not they'd pass the House DHS funding bill that included ICE. The Senate would have needed to do so with unanimous consent.

They gaveled into the pro forma session earlier this morning.

According to Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin, the Senate do not pass the House DHS funding bill.

Here's some more from the New York Post:

Senate Republicans declined to make any attempt at passing the GOP House's solution to end the Department of Homeland Security shutdown during the chamber's pro forma session on Monday.

The Senate had broken for recess last week after passing a DHS funding deal that the House GOP quickly rejected in favor of a 60-day stopgap measure to fund the entire department.

There had been some speculation that Senate Republicans would attempt to wrangle the House bill deal through the upper chamber during its brief session on Monday, but that didn't happen.

In theory, Senate Republicans could've moved to pass the measure through unanimous consent. While most senators are out of town, Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) stood ready in the chamber to block any such attempt on behalf of Democrats.

When the House or Senate goes on recess, it typically holds pro forma sessions, short meetings where no official business is conducted to keep the chamber technically in session. In the Senate, this is done to stop a president from making recess appointments.

Yesterday, Senator Mike Lee said the Senate should pass the bill and reconvene immediately if it doesn't.

As Melugin reported, they adjourned until Thursday.

Yes, they are. That's why the Republicans need to pass the bill.

It is. Democrats always manage to pass their legislation, even if they don't have 60 votes in the Senate. Republicans need to do the same.

That seems to be the prevailing sentiment on X right now, and no one is happy about it.