By Sarah Ferris, Annie Grayer, Morgan Rimmer, Alison Main, Aileen Graef, CNN
(CNN) — The latest push to reopen the Department of Homeland Security is sputtering on Capitol Hill, with frustrations so high that some rank-and-file lawmakers in both parties are privately meeting on their own to try to salvage talks.
Just a day earlier, Senate GOP leaders believed they’d found a compromise that would reopen the shuttered DHS by this weekend. But that plan — which would withhold money for federal immigration enforcement but without any policy changes — has fallen flat in both parties, leaving President Donald Trump and GOP leaders with no clear path to end the nearly 40-day stalemate before Congress leaves in two days for a two-week recess.
And with Democrats, too, rejecting the strategy, an uncharacteristically downbeat Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters that it felt that talks were “going in circles” – signaling the impasse could go on for much longer.
Meanwhile, a leading Senate negotiator, GOP Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama, huddled with several House Democratic centrists on Wednesday morning in a frantic attempt to salvage talks and keep both parties at the table for a deal, according to multiple people familiar with the meeting.
Britt, as she left the meeting, told reporters that negotiators “have to” get a deal done this week, adding: “There’s deals on the table.”
Another person familiar with the discussions said it’s a direct result of the intense pressure lawmakers are feeling back home over the department shutdown, which has caused hours-long security lines at airports nationwide.
“We can’t walk away. We need to get something done, we need to get airports open,” that person said.
While top Democrats have insisted that voters will blame Republicans for the shutdown, one senior House Democratic aide suggested that could soon change: “This can’t go on much longer and not have the American people begin to also blame Democrats.”
With just two days until lawmakers are set to leave town for the Easter and Passover recess, Thune said Wednesday he still believes his strategy is the best route to a deal. But he will have to win over plenty of skeptics, including in his own party. Conservatives are balking at the prospect of defunding some Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, and Trump has notably refused to back the plan in full.
Democrats delivered a formal rejection of that plan late Wednesday morning, demanding permanent ICE reforms in any deal — something that Senate Republicans say is not on the table if Democrats don’t agree to actually fund ICE.
“Our offer is a reasonable, good-faith proposal that contains some of the very same asks Democrats have been talking about,” Schumer said on the Senate floor, announcing the party’s counteroffer that was sent on behalf of both House and Senate Democratic leaders.
“We’ve been talking about ICE reforms from day one. These are not new demands,” Schumer said.
Republicans, though, are exasperated by what they see as Democrats’ constantly changing demands.
GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy likened Democrats to Iran amid the ongoing war, arguing “they feel like they can hold a hostage and get more gained. And it doesn’t matter that people are suffering in our country or