MEMPHIS, Tennessee, March 23 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump evoked Jesus on Monday to urge Republicans in Congress to work through the upcoming Easter holiday in a bid to pass a voter-identification bill that Democrats strongly oppose.
Trump said the voting bill should be included in any agreement to fund the Homeland Security department, which has been partially shut down since February 13 after Democrats demanded reforms to immigration enforcement.
“I’m requesting that the Republican senators do that immediately. You don’t have to take a fast vote. Don’t worry about Easter, going home. In fact, make this one for Jesus,” Trump told a roundtable event in Memphis, Tennessee.
Lawmakers are due to take a two-week Easter recess starting at the end of this week.
However, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican, dismissed the notion of combining Department of Homeland Security funding with the voter identification bill.
“I think you all know that’s not realistic,” Thune told reporters, referring to there being enough Senate opposition to the bill to sink it.
Instead, Thune said he hoped that before the end of the week there could be a path toward passage of the DHS measure.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, in a Senate speech, said Trump was “trying to sabotage negotiations, demanding that talks stop entirely until Congress passes the SAVE Act.”
There still were thorny issues to be resolved on the DHS funding bill. Democrats have been pushing to require Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents get judicial warrants before entering private property.
“I’m not sure how you solve that one,” Thune said of the demand. “People have to be able to do their jobs. And the use of administrative warrants has been a practice that’s been around for a long time,” Thune said.
Administrative warrants normally have not been used to forcibly enter private homes.
Thune also has resisted Trump’s calls for eliminating the “filibuster” rule in the Senate so that Republicans can advance legislation without any support from Democrats.
The lack of DHS funds means tens of thousands of Transportation Security Administration personnel have worked without pay for five weeks, leading some airport security workers to call in sick or quit entirely.
The voting bill would require voters to provide proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID for casting ballots. The bill currently lacks the 60 votes needed to overcome Democratic opposition in the 100-member Senate, where Republicans hold 53 seats.
(Reporting by Bo Erickson, Ryan Patrick Jones and Richard Cowan; Editing by David Ljunggren, Alistair Bell and Chris Reese)
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