Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV) will confront a political mess when Congress returns this week to try to end a record-breaking 59-day partial government shutdown. 

He's the House appropriations cardinal responsible for Homeland Security, and he's concerned about the direction negotiations are heading, including a plan that would fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) through the party-line reconciliation process.

"I'm just sitting there looking at this plan going, 'So, you want to give these guys no absolute Article I supervision for the next 36 months.' I ain't voting for that," he said in a Friday interview with The Nevada Independent. 

Amodei previously called for a pivot in the administration's approach to immigration enforcement before former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was removed from her post. The agency has been able to operate with limited transparency thanks to last year's reconciliation package, which poured $75 billion into the agency.

"I got a sour taste in my mouth from the last one with respect to ICE," he said.

While the Department of Homeland Security has been shut down, ICE and Customs and Border Protection have continued functioning with money from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump took executive action directing his administration to pay all of the department's employees — including Transportation Security Administration workers — bypassing the legislative branch altogether. It's unclear how many pay periods that solution will last. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) have agreed to pursue a two-track approach. The first track returns to the Senate plan to fund most of the department, with the exception of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol. On the second track, Republicans would try later to fund those agencies through party-line spending legislation.

Neither outcome is guaranteed, and the strategy could still face opposition from the GOP's own ranks even though Trump has given his support.

"If somebody's got something that works, that's fine, but so far, 'Just pass the Senate bill and we'll get rid of the [airport] lines,'" is how Amodei described the negotiations. "I'm the last guy in the world that wants to politicize those people in an area that had absolutely nothing to do with it, but it's like at some point in time, you're going to have to stand your ground on this stuff."

Amodei praised Johnson, saying, "He has pulled — I don't know what it is, I could go back and check — three or four miracles where people are going, 'There's no way in hell. You're not going to pass reconciliation. You're not going to get this done, that done.' And you know what the speaker's thanks for that is? They just call up from the Senate and the White House and say, 'Hey, here's your latest miracle assignment.'"

But the congressman had plenty of criticism to go around following the shooting deaths of Renée Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, which led to the funding impasse. He noted how Greg Bovino, who led the immigration enforcement operation there, is now retired. 

"I'm not assigning fault, I'm just describing, well, apparently, those were great people to have running those operations," Amodei said sarcastically. "And let me tell you this, 'Shame on you, Twin Cities, for being a total sanctuary atmosphere, which got them swept to begin with.'"

Referencing a DHS funding deal that Democrats opposed after the deaths of Pretti and Good in Minneapolis, Amodei added that "the ultimate irony is there were a bunch of reforms in the bill that we passed, whenever the hell it was. Bipartisan, bicameral, blah blah, blah, good stuff. And then, once the Minneapolis-St. Paul meltdown occurred, now it's like, nobody's even circled back."

Amodei noted that career workers in less controversial branches of DHS have borne the suffering caused by the shutdown. 

"Now everybody's playing political yeehaw," Amodei said. "You're just sitting there going, 'Wow. An absolute not-all-star performance for the last six months at least.'"

The Associated Press contributed to this report.