JUST IN: House Votes to End Partial Government Shutdown Without Funding ICE
The partial government shutdown that lasted 75 days is now about to be over, in what is being viewed as a win for Democrats, as hardline Republicans have been left fuming.
Democrats refused to budge on the issue of funding ICE until reforms could be put in place in the wake of the shooting deaths of two people in Minneapolis.
On Thursday, the House of Representatives approved the bill to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, except for two agencies — ICE and Customs and Border Protection.
CNN’s Manu Rajureported that the bill has been sitting in the House for more than 30 days while TSA agents and other government employees have gone without pay.
“In fact, 35 days ago, the United States Senate passed this measure. But the Speaker of the House at that point said he would not go along with it because he said he was concerned it did not include funding for immigration enforcement,” Raju said.
“Democrats in the Senate, whose votes are vital to pass this bill, said they would absolutely not approve any funding for ICE unless changes were made to how ICE agents are being deployed across the country. As a result, Senate Republicans cut a deal and said, we’ll fund every other aspect of the Department of Homeland security except for those two agencies, and try to fund immigration enforcement along a separate measure that they could approve along party lines. But the Speaker of the House still was not sold. He still would not move on that Senate passed plan.”
Raju said, “Things changed after President Trump moved to pay some of these federal employees through executive action” and that a measure had to be approved this week.
“The White House called on the Speaker to move on the Senate bill immediately. Still, the Speaker would not say for several days what he would do,” Raju said.
Ultimately, the measure “was approved by voice vote under pressure from his members, under pressure from the White House and Senate Republican leaders,” Raju said.
A reporter asked Speaker Mike Johnson(R-LA) why it took so long for the bill to come up for a vote.
“You heard me trash the bill when it came over the first time. Because it literally was drafted in the middle of the night. It was about 2:00 in the morning when they came up with the final language, and it was haphazardly drafted,” Johnson said. “And what it would do is, of course, orphan and leave out immigration enforcement and Border Patrol.”
“That’s absurd, and we threw a fit, and we had to we held the homeland bill, the underlying funding bill, because we had to ensure that they could not isolate and eliminate those two critical agencies,” Johnson said. “We are getting those done now. We passed the resolution first.”
Johnson added, “We will fund Border Patrol and Immigration Enforcement as soon as we return for the work session.”
Watch the clips above via CNN.
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