House passes bill to fund most of DHS in major step toward ending 10-week shutdown

The House on Thursday passed a bill to fund the bulk of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), minus Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a major step toward ending the record-breaking, 10-week shutdown.

The bill passed by voice vote less than an hour after Republican leaders sent out a notice that the chamber would consider the legislation. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had sat on the bill for weeks, but came under increasing pressure to pass it from the White House, Senate, and Republican rank-and-file as funds to pay DHS staff dwindled.

The bill passed the Senate last month and now goes to President Trump’s desk for his signature.

Rep. Mark Alford (R-Mo.) initially sought to pass the bill by unanimous consent, but House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) — who had long expressed gripes about passing a bill that does not fund border security — objected. The House then considered the matter under suspension of the rules, and after a brief debate, passed it by voice vote.

The bipartisan Senate DHS bill would fund the Transportation Security Agency (TSA), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Coast Guard, Secret Service, and other critical agencies through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

ICE and border enforcement, though, still remain unfunded. Republicans are seeking to fund those for three years through a special process known as reconciliation, which would allow Republicans to bypass a filibuster in the Senate.

A blueprint for the “skinny” reconciliation bill to fund immigration enforcement passed a procedural hurdle in the House on Wednesday, adding to that pressure. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) is among the Republicans who have said he wanted the House to pass the Senate DHS bill now that the House cleared that first hurdle.

“We held the homeland bill, the underlying funding bill, because we had to ensure that they could not isolate and eliminate those true critical agencies. We are getting those done now. We passed the [budget] resolution first that was critically important for us to do, to ensure that we’re going to protect the homeland, even though Democrats are unwilling to do it. So now that that box is checked, we’re allowed then to proceed and go through with the rest of it,” Johnson told reporters after the vote.

Leaders did not attempt to include a technical correction that Johnson and hardline Republicans said they wanted for a section stipulating $0 for border security and immigration enforcement, but that would have required the bill to go back to the Senate.

Members of the House Freedom Caucus had railed against splitting apart ICE and Border Patrol funding. But Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), policy chair of the caucus, told reporters after the voice vote that passing a budget blueprint last night reassured him that a reconciliation bill was coming.

“We got the budget passed through last night. So once you got the budget passed through, we know that we’ve got the ability to get the suspension – I mean, the reconciliation done, to be able to get ICE and Border Patrol done for three years. So by getting the budget…in process, that gives us comfort to be able to move forward. That was always the issue. Obviously, some of us, if there was a vote, I would have voted no, but we weren’t going to win that vote, so we decided to go and let it go by voice,” Roy said.

Johnson came under increasing pressure to pass the bill as the Trump administration said it was running out of money it can tap through executive authority to pay DHS employees, which was set to dry up by the first week of May. The attempted assassination of Trump White House Correspondents’ Dinner also ramped up the pressure on fully restoring the agency, which provides security for top officials and major events through Secret Service and other agencies.

One Republican told The Hill said that that Secretary Markwayne Mullin and the White House on Wednesday night had significantly amped up the pressure on members to pass the Senate DHS bill after the House cleared the “skinny” budget blueprint for ICE and Border Patrol, arguing that the technical correction some members sought was not meaningful to the department.

Rank-and-file House Republicans had upped their calls to pass the Senate DHS package this week, too.

Rep. Rob Rep. Bresnahan (R-Pa.) on Tuesday led a letter also signed by Reps. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) and Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) calling on GOP leaders to pass the Senate DHS package.

Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.), chair of the Republican Main Street Caucus,  wrote on X  Thursday that Congress “must remain in session” to pass the Senate DHS bill.

Updated at 2:26 p.m.

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