Senators leave Washington for two-week recess while DHS employees go seven weeks without pay

Tens of thousands of Department of Homeland Security employees have been furloughed or are working without pay for over seven weeks, and both chambers of Congress just left town for a two-week recess with no deal in sight.

The partial government shutdown, now 45 days old and counting, has left thousands of DHS workers without a single full paycheck since the funding lapse began. That includes civilians and support staff at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, the very agencies responsible for enforcing immigration law at the border and inside the country.

And yet, when CBS News congressional correspondent Nikole Killion asked Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., how he justifies being gone for two weeks, Coons pushed back:

"You know very well that we're not off. We're working every day in our home states. For most of us, this is when we have time to go up and down our state and to meet with our constituents and listen to their concerns."

That answer may not sit well with the DHS employees checking empty bank accounts while their elected representatives hold town halls back home.

The impasse: ICE and CBP funding at the center

The core of the standoff is straightforward. Senate Democrats have consistently refused to fund ICE and CBP without attaching sweeping reforms designed to rein in President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration. House Republicans have fiercely objected to any DHS funding bill that strips out money for ICE and CBP, the agencies doing the actual enforcement work.

Late Friday evening, the House approved a two-month DHS funding extension largely along party lines, rejecting a bipartisan Senate deal that would have funded the rest of the department but carved out ICE and parts of the Border Patrol. House Speaker Mike Johnson framed the vote in blunt terms.

"Republicans are not going to be any part of any effort to reopen our borders or to stop immigration enforcement."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the House bill "dead on arrival" in the upper chamber. That phrase has become a familiar refrain from Senate Democrats, who hold enough votes to block legislation they oppose. The pattern is now well established: the House passes a bill, Schumer declares it finished, and nothing moves.

This is the same Democratic leadership that has drawn criticism from within its own ranks for failing to offer a coherent governing strategy.

A pro forma session that accomplished nothing

Monday's scheduled "pro forma" session in the Senate offered a brief window. In theory, a Republican senator could have asked for unanimous consent to pass the House bill. But no Senate Republican made the attempt. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., chaired the session, and no business was considered.

Coons traveled to the Capitol specifically to block any potential floor action by Republicans during the session. He voiced frustration that lawmakers could pursue unanimous consent during the Senate's recess, then acknowledged he would keep doing it if necessary.

"It is incredibly inconvenient for members to have to come back to Washington just to be there for five minutes. But ultimately, if that's what it takes, I'm willing to be the one who comes in again."

Consider that framing. A senator calls it "incredibly inconvenient" to return to the Capitol while the people who screen your luggage, patrol the border, and process immigration cases haven't been paid in nearly two months.

Not every Republican was content with the recess either. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, wrote on social media Sunday evening that the Senate should not have left at all. His message was aimed squarely at Democrats.

"We can't reward unprecedented obstruction with two-week recesses."

Lee was not present during Monday's pro forma session. But his point stands as a challenge to both parties: if the shutdown is unprecedented, why is the response a scheduled vacation?

Where the money stands

President Trump has taken executive action to pay the Transportation Security Administration workforce using existing funds. That move kept airport security lines staffed and avoided the most visible disruption to everyday travelers. Sen. Hoeven credited the president directly.

"TSA is getting paid, because of the president's action, and we appreciate that very much."

Hoeven also pointed to funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act as a backstop for ICE and CBP. "Also, ICE and CBP, there is funding there from the 'big beautiful bill.' So they're getting paid as well," he told reporters Monday. But that funding path does not cover every DHS employee. Certain civilians and support staff at ICE and CBP have still not received a paycheck during the lapse.

The broader picture remains grim. Many DHS employees have gone over seven weeks without a full paycheck. These are not political appointees or senior officials. They are the frontline workers, the agents, screeners, analysts, and administrative staff who keep the homeland security apparatus running.

Republican leaders in the Senate have floated a longer-term fix. Hoeven said Republicans are considering a second budget reconciliation package that would fund DHS for three years, effectively preventing Democrats from using the same obstruction tactic again. "We want to now do reconciliation for three years," Hoeven said. "So the Democrats can't do this to us again."

That approach could bypass the 60-vote filibuster threshold, but reconciliation takes time. Fox News reported that a second reconciliation package could take several months to accomplish. In the meantime, DHS employees wait.

Democrats' strategy: block ICE, blame Republicans

The Democratic position rests on a single demand: no funding for ICE and CBP unless Congress imposes new restrictions on Trump's immigration enforcement. That is not a minor policy tweak. It is a demand that the legislative branch defund the agencies carrying out the president's core domestic policy priority, border security and interior enforcement, as a condition of keeping the rest of DHS open.

House Republicans rejected that framing when they voted down the bipartisan Senate deal. House GOP Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain, R-Mich., told Fox News Digital on Friday that she would prefer funding DHS through the normal appropriations process. But normal appropriations require Senate cooperation, and Senate Democrats have made clear they will not cooperate unless enforcement agencies are hobbled.

The result is a standoff that punishes the people least responsible for it. The tens of thousands of DHS employees caught in the middle did not vote to block ICE funding. They did not declare anything "dead on arrival." They showed up to work, or they were told to stay home, and either way they are not getting paid.

This dynamic echoes a broader pattern in which Senate Democrats use procedural leverage to extract policy concessions that they cannot win through normal legislative channels.

Congress leaves, the clock keeps running

Both chambers are now scheduled to remain in recess until mid-April. That means the shutdown will almost certainly stretch past two months before lawmakers even return to Washington in full. Pro forma sessions will continue, but Monday's session showed how little those accomplish when neither side is willing to force the issue.

Killion's question to Coons on Monday cut to the heart of the matter: "We're 45 days in. Can Democrats and Republicans keep affording to play this blame game?" Coons did not offer a timeline for resolution.

The disconnect between Washington's comfort and the consequences it imposes on ordinary workers is nothing new. But the scale here is hard to ignore. Seven weeks without pay. Tens of thousands of employees affected. A recess that stretches into mid-April. And a Democratic caucus that has made funding the government contingent on dismantling immigration enforcement.

Meanwhile, some Democratic leaders have taken to dismissing broadly popular policy positions while insisting they represent mainstream values. The DHS shutdown is another case where the party's leadership class appears far more interested in political leverage than in the people who bear the cost of the standoff.

When senators call it "incredibly inconvenient" to come back to the Capitol for five minutes, while the people who protect the homeland haven't seen a paycheck in seven weeks, the priorities are plain enough. No editorial is needed to explain them.