WASHINGTON, D.C.–Concerns about the Iran war are dominating the news, but Republicans in Congress are focused elsewhere.
Democrats are harping on President Donald Trump’s military campaign in the Middle East, while Republicans remain focused on voting rights and ending the partial Department of Homeland Security shutdown.
Majority leader Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) spent his remarks to the Senate on Tuesday morning solely discussing the SAVE America Act. Then, during his later press conference, his prepared statement was on the importance of reopening DHS.
Thune didn’t mention the war until reporters asked him about it. Instead, he criticized Democrats for opposing Republicans’ proposals about voter ID rules in federal elections and DHS funding.
While expressing willingness to reopen DHS and somewhat showing support for voter ID, Democrats believe the war in Iran trumps both of those issues.
“It shows completely misplaced priorities,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said to Capital News Service.
The DHS shutdown continues as funding disagreements remain in a stalemate
DHS has been partially shut down for two months and negotiations about funding have fallen through.
“It is shameful what the Democrats have done to the Department of Homeland Security,” Thune said. “They have now, twice this last year, forced people in the department to go without pay for extended periods.”
Democrats cited practices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection as issues that have held up the discussion about funding DHS.
Separate from ICE and CBP, there are other effects of the shutdown. Agencies in charge of travel security, emergency aid and cybersecurity have gone without funding.
Democrats want to fund those other agencies, but they express concerns about including immigration enforcement in those funding negotiations.
“Democrats passed bipartisan funding twice for the parts of DHS that protect Americans every day. Republicans block it because Donald Trump and Stephen Miller told them to,” minority leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters this week.
“Instead of reopening DHS and delivering for the American people, Republicans are dragging the Senate through a partisan circus just to avoid basic accountability for ICE and border patrol,” Schumer said.
Passing the SAVE America Act in the Senate remains a key goal for Republicans
Republicans are trying to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require actual documentation of U.S. citizenship to register to vote. It also requires photo identification on election day.
“Senate Democrats have been trying to rebrand themselves as supporters of voter ID, but when Republicans offered a straightforward voter ID proposal, every single Democrat in the Senate voted against it,” Thune said on the Senate floor Tuesday.
Democrats criticize Republicans for focusing on the SAVE Act and ignoring the Iran war.
They also argue that the SAVE Act is trying to make it harder for Americans to vote, using claims of non-citizen voting in federal elections as a justification.
“The Save Act is really a Trojan horse for trying to prevent American citizens from voting. It’s being fraudulently sold as a way to prevent non-citizens from voting,” Van Hollen said to CNS. “Every study shows that non-citizens are not voting in our elections.”
Democrats say that pushing the SAVE America Act is how Republicans look to shift the focus past the war in Iran.
Democrats want to hold Republicans accountable
Democrats came into session after the two-week spring break recess with one goal in mind: They want to hold Trump and Republicans accountable for the war in Iran.
“This war has been a disaster, a total and complete disaster,” Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) said. “Americans are paying the price because of this war, and it is abundantly clear that the president has not even a shred of a plan for how we get out of this mess.”
Other Democrats are also concerned that Republicans don’t consider what’s happening in Iran as a war. Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) said the war has entailed a “dramatically different dynamic” since Trump’s harsh rhetoric during the recess period.
“[The war] is so clearly a strategic failure,” Kim said. “There’s just no way that my Republican colleagues are continuing to say that this is not a war.”