The Senate took the first step Thursday in a GOP-backed plan to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, sending the House for a second time its bill to fund the department except for immigration enforcement.
In an early-morning pro forma session, the Senate agreed, by voice vote, to table a House measure that would have extended funding for the entire department for eight weeks. The move effectively restored the bill back to its original Senate-passed version, giving the House another chance to act on it.
The move came after President Donald Trump threw his support behind the Senate proposal, which includes a plan to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection separately through a filibuster-proof reconciliation bill in coming weeks. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who had called the Senate bill a “joke” last week because it lacked immigration enforcement funding, rallied behind it Wednesday after Trump’s intervention.
