It's Tuesday, the traditional day for elections and for our pause-and-consider newsletter on politics and policy. We think of it as a mini-magazine in your inbox.
THE DHS SHUTDOWN, BROKEN DOWN By Lisa Desjardins, @LisaDNews Correspondent
Tens of thousands of workers at the Department of Homeland Security are working without pay — their paychecks caught up in another government funding fight.
DHS is a wide-ranging agency that includes the Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Coast Guard and Transportation Security Administration. With the ongoing partial shutdown, TSA has been understaffed at airports, disrupting air travel. Employees will eventually get back pay but that does not pay the immediate bills.
But now, there is again hope for a deal to end the DHS shutdown that began on Feb. 14.
The deal being offered
Senate Republicans have worked with President Donald Trump to come up with this possible offer, per sources involved and familiar:
Fund all of DHS, with one exception: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's detention and removal operations. (More on this below.)
Include voluntary ICE reforms, as offered in January, the administration would voluntarily include more body cameras, avoid ICE raids in places like schools or churches, and require officers to identify themselves.
Make one potential change to current law. With this deal, the White House would agree to a law prohibiting the detention of an American citizen by DHS agents, unless that person violates a law.
What has changed? Per sources, Senate Republicans agreed to try to pass the SAVE America Act, which would change election law, through the short-cut process of budget reconciliation. That requires just 50 Senate votes, rather than 60.
There are reasons that the SAVE America Act is still unlikely to pass this way. But what matters is that Trump is now on board. For now.
What about Democrats?
Now we come to the immediate problem with this deal.
Democrats are and have been willing to fund most of DHS, including TSA. But they want significant reforms to ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, whose aggressive tactics are the reason Democrats would not agree to a deal in the first place.
To many Democrats, the reforms on the table are window dressing that do not put real limits on how ICE and CBP agents operate within U.S. borders.
Among other things, Democrats would like agents to no longer wear masks and to be forced to get judicial warrants to enter private spaces.
What will happen?
Let's look at tailwinds in favor of a deal and headwinds pushing the other way.
The tailwinds
A group of moderate Senate Democrats want the shutdown to end.
Republicans see polling that indicates they are being blamed for long airport lines.
Congress is supposed to leave by Friday for a two-week recess.
The headwinds
Schumer and many Democrats, including moderates, want more substantial reforms and rejected this list in January.
ICE is already funded, thanks to an unprecedented $75 billion boost last year. That means leaving ICE funding out of this deal does not offer any real future leverage to Democrats. Anything they want to get, they likely need to get now.
Republicans believe Democrats keep moving the goal posts and won't take "yes" for an answer. If Democrats ask for more, this deal could quickly collapse.
What happens next?
We are in for a day or two of hour-by-hour ups and downs. But by Thursday, I can see enough pressure building for lawmakers to come up with a solution that at least buys time and gets DHS paid in the short run.
That is far from guaranteed. Meetings have been happening all day Tuesday.
The best course of action is to simply stay tuned. (I'll be posting the latest on X if you want to follow along).
WE'D LIKE TO HEAR FROM YOU!
If America had a playlist, what would track No. 1 be? What song do you think best captures the country's spirit, story or sound? (Here's a shortlist to get the brain juices flowing.)
Share your pick here. A producer from our team might be in touch to talk more as part of our coverage of America's 250th anniversary.
More on politics from our coverage:
Watch: Trump says Iran wants a "deal" to end the war, but the regime denies talks and strikes continue.
One Big Question: How much political pressure does the Iran war create for Republicans? NPR's Tamara Keith and Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter discuss.
After sex abuse allegations emerged against the late Cesar Chavez, many elected officials and labor leaders echoed one point: The movement was "bigger than one man."
A paragon of pride for many Mexican Americans, Chavez inspired heroic iconography across the country over the last few decades. Street signs, parks, schools and other buildings were christened with his name. His birthday, March 31, became a state and federal commemorative holiday.
Now, the swift undoing of those public declarations leaves communities asking what's next.
The Chicano/a studies department at the University of California, Los Angeles, voted unanimously to remove Chavez from its name at an emergency meeting Wednesday.
Veronica Terriquez, director of UCLA's Chicano Studies Research Center, was one of those votes. She grew up appreciating United Farm Workers, the union Chavez co-founded with fellow activist Dolores Huerta, and its advocacy as a collective movement — not the toils of one person.
"Similar to the civil rights movement, we often highly regard the spokespeople, the people who are up in front of the microphone, and don't often recognize the larger collective that makes movement possible," she said.
And yet, Chavez's name rose to national prominence as a kind of shorthand for what the farmworker movement accomplished.
Watch the segment in the player above.
Terriquez said it's often easier to talk about the "one, brave, brilliant person who achieved a lot" than recognizing the complexities of a movement. We don't hear enough about the people in the background, strategizing and making decisions, making sacrifices, making mistakes, she added.
"We tend to simplify history," Terriquez said.
California lawmakers said Thursday they will introduce a bill to change Cesar Chavez Day, a state holiday observed since 2000, to "Farmworkers Day." Other cities are considering similar changes.
Terriquez said this is a moment for the public to understand why the farmworkers needed to organize a union all those years ago and what progress is still needed since labor conditions for farmworkers "remain unjust in many parts of the country."
THIS WEEK'S TRIVIA QUESTION By Joshua Barajas Senior Editor, Digital
President Donald Trump is remaking the nation's capital in ways that run counter to the city's symmetry and skyline.
Beyond the unpopular move to demolish the East Wing of the White House, there's the proposed "Independence Arch" and the planned "National Garden of American Heroes," which will include some 250 statues of notable Americans and others important to the country's history. While the list of who will be represented by a statue is still being formalized, early reports indicate that the garden may include some controversial historical figures.
This week, a replica of one of the figures being considered for Trump's hero garden appeared overnight near the White House.
Our question: Which controversial figure, once described by Trump as the "original American hero," was recently honored with a statue in a location not far from the White House?
Send your answers to NewsHourPolitics@newshour.org or tweet using #PoliticsTrivia. The first correct answers will earn a shoutout next week.
Last week, we asked: What can election officials do with physical ballots after the 22-month preservation period mandated by federal law?
The answer: Destroy them. Depending on the jurisdiction, cities and towns shred, tear or recycle physical ballots, which helps preserve voter privacy and protect election integrity.
Congratulations to our winners: Dave Pasley and Dean Gottehrer!
Thank you all for reading and watching. We'll drop into your inbox next week.
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