An end to the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may be in sight, after Congress’s Republican leaders on Wednesday agreed to advance legislation that would fund most of the agency’s operations, with the exception of those involved in immigration enforcement.
The pact may conclude the longest such funding lapse in US history, which last month caused security lines to stretch for hours at some airports as employees of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), a subagency of DHS, quit their jobs or called out of work after going weeks without pay.
Wait times eased earlier this week, after Donald Trump signed an order for TSA employees to receive paychecks.
In a joint statement, Mike Johnson, House speaker, and John Thune, Senate majority leader, said they would move to pass a measure, approved by the Senate unanimously last week, which would fund DHS while excluding money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and parts of Customs and Border Protection.
They would also abandon an attempt pushed by House Republicans to fund all of the DHS for 60 days, which Senate Democrats vowed to block with a filibuster.
Democrats have objected to funding ICE and other agencies involved in Trump’s mass deportation campaign unless the administration agreed to new rules governing agents’ conduct when making immigration arrests, including a ban on wearing masks and a requirement that they seek judicial warrants before entering residences.
To get around their objections, Thune and Johnson endorsed a plan from the Senate budget committee chair, Lindsey Graham, to write a measure funding ICE that could be passed with Republican votes alone, using the budget reconciliation procedure.
“We appreciate that Senator Graham and the Senate budget committee have already initiated the process of developing a budget resolution that will ensure border security and immigration enforcement will be funded for the balance of the Trump administration and insulated from future attempts by the Democrats to defund those agencies,” the Republican leaders said.
It remains unclear when the Senate and House of Representatives, which are scheduled to be on recess through this week and the next, can pass the DHS funding bill.
Johnson and Thune said they hoped to resolve the matter “in the coming days”, a sign that they may try to pass it during the brief ceremonial sessions that the chambers hold during congressional recesses. Both the House and Senate have their next ones scheduled on Thursday morning.
The outcome represents a mixed bag for Democrats, who held up the annual appropriations bill for the homeland security department in January, after immigration agents killed two US citizens during a highly public crackdown aimed at undocumented immigrants in Minneapolis.
Their demand for reforms prompted the DHS to partially shut down in mid-February, but ICE and other agencies continued to carry out arrests and deportations using funds from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (Obbba), and the funding measure set to pass Congress lacks the reforms they demanded.
In a statement, the Democratic Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, accused the GOP of prolonging the shutdown, alluding to a split that emerged in the party last week when Johnson, apparently at the urging of the rightwing House Freedom caucus, rejected the Senate’s unanimously passed bill, and attempted to pass a measure funding DHS for two months even though it lacked Democratic support.
“For days, Republican divisions derailed a bipartisan agreement, making American families pay the price for their dysfunction,” Schumer said.
“Throughout this fight, Senate Democrats never wavered. We were clear from the start: fund critical security, protect Americans and no blank check for reckless ICE and border patrol enforcement. We were united, held the line and refused to let Republican chaos win.”
The House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, signaled that Democrats in the lower chamber were ready to support the Senate bill.
“Mike Johnson and House Republicans have come to realize that we will never bend the knee,” he said in a statement. “It’s time to pay TSA agents, end the airport chaos and fully fund every part of the Department of Homeland Security that does not relate to Donald Trump’s violent mass deportation machine.”
Republicans, meanwhile, are set up for weeks of tough negotiations over the reconciliation bill, which, after the Obbba, would be the second passed since Trump returned to the White House.
Last week, Graham, whose committee will take a lead role in writing the measure, signaled that it would also include money to pay for the conflict with Iran, as well as elements of the Save America Act, which would institute a host of new identification requirements on voters when they register and cast ballots.
