The House is passing a DHS funding cut as the shutdown is set to be the longest in history
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House Republicans passed temporary funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over strong opposition from Democratic lawmakers late Friday evening.
But the 42-day shutdown that has crippled air travel and left tens of thousands of federal workers without pay is far from over.
Lawmakers voted 213-203 largely along party lines to approve a two-month funding extension for the beleaguered department, which has been operating without a year-round budget since funding began to expire in Feb. 14.
Reps. Don Davis, DN.C., Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., and Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, crossed party lines to support the measure. More than a dozen lawmakers did not vote.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., successfully passed a two-month extension of funding for the Department of Homeland Security, but the measure faces a long shot at passing the Senate. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The House-passed DHS measure faces an uphill battle in the Senate, where Democrats passed GOP-authorized legislation that included federal funding six weeks ago.
Both chambers are scheduled to leave Washington for the Easter recess without ending funding, paving the way for the longest partial government shutdown in history.
“In those eight weeks, we’re going to look at this with the Democrats and find a few changes or whatever they need to make sure we’re doing this the right way, but we’re going to protect their country. We have to,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., speaking on Ingraham Angle on Friday evening. “It’s a very important and fundamental job of Congress, and the Democrats don’t want to do that.”
Democratic lawmakers, who have repeatedly voted against the DHS spending bill that funds President Donald Trump’s illegal immigration crackdown without reform, echoed the same sentiment on Friday.
“House Republicans have decided they would like to disrupt you, create chaos for you and your families so they can continue to ram their far right wing ideas down the throats of the American people so they can continue spending billions of dollars to get ICE. [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to torture and kill American citizens,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., during a news conference on Friday.
The vote came after House GOP leadership and the conservative House Caucus flatly rejected the deal passed by the Senate earlier Friday. The deal, which passed the Senate unanimously, would have funded most of DHS’s sub-agency with the exception of ICE and parts of US Customs and Border Protection.
The National Border Patrol Council endorsed the House bill late Friday, saying the Senate’s failure to fully fund DHS is “completely unacceptable and should not stand.”
The House Freedom Caucus has strongly criticized the deal passed by the Senate on Friday, arguing that the upper chamber has turned its back on federal immigration officials. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
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Senate Republicans have derided a second “big, good” bill to give more money to ICE and the Border Patrol, though that would be difficult in an election year with slim numbers in both chambers.
“It wasn’t good. It wasn’t fair,” Trump told Fox News in an interview Friday, referring to the Senate deal. “You can’t have a bill that doesn’t fund ICE.”
House GOP leadership also expressed concern about funding ICE and the Border Patrol through the second budget reconciliation package.
“That’s a very difficult task. It’s a dangerous gamble for us to think we can do that,” Johnson told Ingraham Angle. “And in the meantime, people are still going to lead on this. We have to make sure that we take care of those who take care of themselves.”
President Donald Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., both criticized the Senate DHS spending bill on Friday for failing to include money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and US Customs and Border Protection. (Photo by J. Scott Applewhite/AP; Win McNamee/Getty Images)
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The most pressing point of the closure’s pain – the shortage of Transportation Management staff at airports across the country – will be reduced. Staffing restrictions have created hours-long wait times at TSA security checkpoints, leading to travel disruptions and missed flights.
Trump, in an executive order, ordered DHS to pay more than 50,000 TSA workers who have been reporting to work without compensation since the shutdown began to pay their wages. Agents are expected to receive their first full payment in more than six weeks on Monday.
