GOP Looks to Tie DHS Funding Fight to Iran Attack

Nathan Dean, Senior US Policy Analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence, discusses the domestic implications of US strikes in Iran.

Republicans are tying the ongoing US-Israeli strikes against Iran to the Homeland Security funding fight, looking to pressure Democrats to reopen the department as the Trump administration continues its new war against Tehran.

Swaths of Republican lawmakers called on Democrats to support a DHS funding bill in the wake of the strikes over the weekend, claiming a heightened national security risk.

“Given the situation in the Middle East and the potential for Iran and its terrorist proxies to attempt some type of attack, it is imperative that” Democrats drop their opposition to a full-year DHS bill, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) said in a post on X.

Democrats are unlikely to be convinced. Sen. Chris Murphy (Conn.), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Homeland Security subcommittee, wrote in a post on X Republicans are using the war on Iran as “an excuse to allow ICE to keep murdering Americans.”

“They went to war with Iran (which nobody in America was asking for) so they could conjure an excuse to allow ICE to keep murdering Americans and teargassing schools here at home with impunity (which nobody in America was asking for),” Murphy wrote.

There’s scant Democratic support for Trump’s war on Iran, so Republicans’ arguments are likely to fall on deaf ears. House Democrats are expected to force a war powers vote this week as several the chamber’s minority party, along with a handful of Republicans, condemn the strikes without congressional authorization.

Congressional Democrats are reviewing the White House’s latest counteroffer to fund the department, which came days after President Donald Trump called for “immediate and full restoration” of the department’s base budget and 10 days after Democrats sent their last offer. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem faced sharp questions from two Republican senators at an oversight hearing Tuesday who called her leadership “a disaster” and questioned spending on an ad campaign in which she was featured.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) focused on a $220 million television advertising campaign featuring Noem that was designed to deter unlawful migration.

After asking about DHS efforts to curb waste and abuse, Kennedy asked, “How do you square that concern for waste, which I share, with the fact that you have spent $220 million running television advertisements that feature you prominently?”

Noem said President Donald Trump directed her to launch the ads to deter people from entering the country unlawfully and to warn those in the US illegally that they would be detained and removed.

Noem appeared Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee as DHS entered its third week of a partial shutdown, with lawmakers pressing her on immigration enforcement and security concerns following attacks by Israel and the US in Iran and the growing regional fallout

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said “what we’ve seen is a disaster under your leadership” as he raised concerns about the administration’s approach to immigration detentions.

“What we’ve seen is innocent people getting detained that turn out are American citizens,” Tillis said.

Tillis added, “We’re beginning to get the American people to think that deporting people is wrong. It’s the exact opposite. The way you’re going about deporting them is wrong.”

He threatened to place holds on nominations if DHS doesn’t provide requested information.

In the exchange over the DHS ads, Kennedy also asked whether the contracts were competitively bid.

After Noem said they went out to a competitive bid and career officials chose who would do them, Kennedy disputed that account, saying his research showed the contracts weren’t bid out and that one firm, Safe America Media, was formed 11 days before it was selected.

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