The snow that walloped the East Coast may have been short-lived in D.C., but the storm over Homeland Security funding hasn’t budged. Now in its second week, the shutdown squabble hangs over the city like an immovable fog. Despite a string of closed-door meetings between the White House and congressional leaders, both sides seem frozen in their corners. There’s some hope that the president’s State of the Union address will help shake things loose, but that would require Democrats to give-and-take — an art the country hasn’t witnessed much of.

Of course, there are new factors at play as Congress reconvenes. Starting Friday, Homeland Security staff will start missing paychecks — a new pressure point that Republican leaders hope will jump-start the flailing negotiations. “[The shutdown] gets real going into the weekend if people are being required to show up to work and not get paid. That’s when it becomes sympathetic and real,” a Senate Republican told The Hill. There’s also the weapon Donald Trump wields in the form of Tuesday’s speech, a significant opportunity and platform for him to shame Democrats’ political posturing over DHS.

“Once the State of the Union is over, then I’m sure talks will come back in,” Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin (Okla.) predicted. His optimistic take isn’t shared by a lot of politicos, who worry that the parties still have to bridge an ocean of differences. As White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair explained, “They’re saying right now, ‘Okay, we’re going to close DHS until you basically stop enforcing immigration law in this country.’ We’re not going to do that,” he warned. “This is just the Democrats’ grandstanding.”

Even so, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has managed an impressive amount of unity in his caucus over ICE. “Unlike the record 43-day government shutdown last year,” reporter Al Weaver points out, “Democratic leaders are not facing a mutiny by moderate-leaning members who grew increasingly queasy as the impasse dragged in the fall. Instead, Democrats appear to feel they have the political wind at their backs…” That said, “We haven’t hit the proverbial pain points yet,” a GOP source reminded people.

Democrats are stubbornly clinging to their 10-point demands, while the administration argues that a lot of their concerns were addressed when Border Czar Tom Homan started directly overseeing Trump’s deportation efforts after the disaster of Minneapolis. Those changes were outlined in a one-page sheet to congressional members on Sunday, hinting that Trump is also standing his ground.

Unlike the historic shutdown of last fall, this latest installment hasn’t created a lot of public angst, Punchbowl News notes, “mostly because upwards of 90% of the department — the Transportation Security Administration, Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency — are considered essential, meaning employees are working without pay.”

Asked whether the impasse could be solved this week, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, “I hate to tell you this, but the latest news is, I do not expect that it will be. I’m afraid that the Democrats are playing games with this once again.” The president is beyond “frustrated,” the Louisianan shook his head, “as I am, as all of us are.” And the blame lies at the feet of Schumer’s party. “They’re not negotiating in good faith,” he charged. “They’ve made terms to reopen the government fully that they know cannot be fulfilled. And it’s as if they’re trying to use this for political purposes. Go figure.”

But the speaker cautioned, “It’s going to backfire on them, because the agencies that they’ve closed down here, the agencies within the Department of Homeland Security, do exactly what the name suggests — they keep the homeland safe. And you’re talking about agencies, as we’ve discussed, like FEMA, like the Coast Guard. I mean, you’ve got agencies like TSA that keep us safe in the airports here.” Even cybersecurity operations are in jeopardy. “… [I]t’s really a foolish and dangerous gambit that they’re playing. And I think the president has had about enough of it.”

Other Republicans were blunter in their assessment. “This is the stupidest shutdown in U.S. history,” Rep. Mark Alford (Mo.) complained on “Washington Watch” Friday. “And it follows a 44-day-longest shutdown in U.S. history, led by Chuck Schumer in his incompetence and his quest to be relevant and not be primaried in his next election.” But this one is especially idiotic, he vented, “because we fully funded ICE through the appropriations process. … ICE [has been] doing its business and deporting illegal aliens, a mandate by the American people. Seventy-four million of them who voted for President Trump wanted illegal aliens deported. But the Democrats didn’t like that. And so, they raised a stink.” And in the process, they didn’t do “what they agreed to do,” he underscored, which was to “vote for the very bill that they negotiated.”

This isn’t really about ICE, Alford wants people to know. “They have no message, no leader, no vision, and they’re glomming on to anything they can. And their Trump Derangement Syndrome [is] leading the way to try to get votes in the midterm [election]. It’s not going to work,” he stressed. “The people are figuring it out. Americans, even the liberals, are a lot smarter than what these Democrats in the Senate are.”

Meanwhile, the entire situation is certainly fueling the fire to pass legislation that would stop either party from using the government’s funding — and people’s livelihoods — as leverage when they want to protest a political decision or issue. Under the Shutdown Fairness Act, federal employees who have to work through the shutdown would be paid — blunting some of the pain that the parties inflict when they choose this route. Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) went so far as to say that he thinks this would be a good deterrent for either side tempted to flip off the agencies’ lights in the future.

“[We need] something that doesn’t allow these shutdowns to occur,” he insisted to Perkins, “where you have rolling continuing resolutions — maybe two weeks in duration — allowing you to conduct these negotiations, but keeping the government funded. I think Americans are going to be sick and tired of this, and I think that’s the solution. … The bottom line is Congress should be able to keep the government open and fund it.”

Not surprisingly, Democrats tanked the effort to move a bill like this last year, because they enjoy hanging the threat of a shutdown over Congress. This, as Perkins pointed out, would keep the government functioning “and buy time for the parties to work out their differences. … Just keep it moving until the negotiations can arrive at some consensus.” Without it, Harris agreed, Washington is just eroding the public’s trust and confidence in Congress. “This is Congress’s job to keep the federal government funded,” he argued.

Could have fooled us.