House Approves Senate DHS Funding Bill Ending 75-Day Shutdown, ICE Left Out

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Congress moved Thursday to end the longest shutdown in the Department of Homeland Security’s history, as the House approved a Senate-crafted funding bill by voice vote that would reopen most of the agency after roughly 75 days without full appropriations. President Donald Trump has said he will sign the measure, which funds DHS operations through Sept. 30, 2026, while leaving immigration enforcement agencies to a separate, highly contentious fight. politico +2

The bill restores money for the Transportation Security Administration, the Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Secret Service and other core components that had faced mounting payroll and operations crises. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and most Border Patrol activities remain unfunded under this package, with Republicans pressing a parallel plan to back those agencies with up to $70 billion through budget reconciliation that can clear the Senate on GOP votes alone. politico +2

What the Deal Does — and Leaves Out

The legislation funds most of DHS at current levels through the end of the fiscal year, ending weeks of uncertainty over whether tens of thousands of security workers would be paid in May. npr +1 TSA checkpoints that had been strained by staffing losses — more than 1,100 screeners quit during the shutdown — are expected to stabilize once back pay and regular salaries resume. npr

Democrats had tried to tie DHS funding to new guardrails on immigration enforcement after high‑profile incidents involving ICE and Border Patrol earlier this year, but those policy demands are absent from the final bill. nbcnews +1 “Democrats got absolutely nothing for their political charades and shenanigans,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said, casting the outcome as a win for Republicans and the Trump administration’s enforcement agenda. npr

Political Gamble Over ICE and Border Patrol

By excluding ICE and Border Patrol from the bipartisan funding bill, GOP leaders are betting they can secure long‑term money for those agencies via reconciliation, bypassing the Senate’s 60‑vote filibuster threshold. The emerging plan would authorize about $70 billion for immigration enforcement over multiple years, but it has already exposed rifts inside the Republican Conference between leadership and hard‑line conservatives who opposed splitting DHS funding. politico +1

Democrats warn the maneuver keeps alive the risk of another funding cliff later this year, since broader DHS money still expires on Sept. 30 and any reconciliation package could face legal and political challenges. nytimes DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin had warned that emergency payroll reserves were essentially exhausted, saying, “We have reached all the emergency funds we can reach into,” a plea that helped push reluctant lawmakers to act before workers missed additional paychecks. bbc

The Bigger Picture

The vote ended immediate turmoil for DHS employees, air travelers and emergency‑management operations, but it did not resolve the core clash over how aggressively — and under what constraints — the federal government should police immigration. With ICE and Border Patrol funding still up in the air and the next fiscal year already looming, Congress has merely pushed the fight into a new arena, setting up another high‑stakes showdown that could again test both parties’ unity and the basic reliability of the federal government’s security apparatus. npr +2

Command Palette

House Approves Senate DHS Funding Bill Ending 75-Day Shutdown, ICE Left Out

What the Deal Does — and Leaves Out

Political Gamble Over ICE and Border Patrol

The Bigger Picture