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Republican Leaders Announce Two-Track Plan to End DHS Shutdown Quickly

Republican Leaders Announce Two-Track Plan to End DHS Shutdown Quickly
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Republican leaders in Congress announced a two-track plan on Wednesday to end the record-long shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), now in its 46th–47th day and the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history.axios +1 The deal would quickly reopen most of DHS through September 30, while funding for immigration enforcement agencies would be punted to a separate, partisan bill later this year.nbcnews +1

The agreement, outlined by House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, revived a Senate framework Republicans themselves rejected just days earlier under pressure from conservatives and former President Donald Trump.axios +1 The shutdown, which began on February 14 after a standoff over funding and oversight of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), has disrupted pay for tens of thousands of DHS employees and fueled long airport security lines as Transportation Security Administration (TSA) staffing frayed.npr +2

How the Two-Track Plan Would Work

Under the plan, Congress would swiftly pass a bill to fund most of DHS — including TSA, the Coast Guard, FEMA and other core operations — through the end of the fiscal year, but leave ICE and key parts of CBP out of that package.nbcnews +2 Johnson and Thune said those enforcement agencies would instead be funded through budget reconciliation, a special process that allows Republicans to bypass a Senate filibuster and pass a party-line bill later in the spring.axios +1

“In following this two-track approach, the Republican Congress will fully reopen the Department, make sure all federal workers are paid, and specifically fund immigration enforcement and border security for the next three years,” the leaders said in a joint statement.axios GOP aides said the reconciliation bill could lock in ICE and CBP funding for at least three years, with some Republicans pushing to extend it up to a decade.nbcnews +1 President Trump, who earlier criticized the Senate’s split-funding concept, publicly embraced the reconciliation strategy on Wednesday and demanded a Republican-only enforcement bill on his desk “no later than June 1.”nbcnews +1

Political Risks and Fault Lines for Both Parties

The plan immediately exposed rifts inside the Republican Party. Hard-right House members, including Freedom Caucus figures who previously blasted the Senate approach as effectively “defunding” enforcement, warned against separating ICE and CBP from the main DHS bill and questioned whether a complex reconciliation effort could be completed on Trump’s aggressive timeline.npr +1 Some of those conservatives could force full roll-call votes, complicating efforts to move the funding bill quickly while both chambers are on a two-week recess.nbcnews +1

Democrats, who have insisted for weeks that new limits and oversight be imposed on ICE and Border Patrol after high-profile deadly incidents, signaled they were likely to support the immediate funding bill to reopen DHS but voiced concern that a GOP-only reconciliation bill would sideline reform efforts.npr +1 House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats were “prepared to support the bill to end the Trump–Republican shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security,” while some Senate Democrats privately conceded that agreeing to the split left them with little leverage over future enforcement funding.npr +1

The Bigger Picture

Even if Johnson and Thune can muscle the appropriations bill through pro forma sessions in the coming days, the shutdown’s end date will hinge on whether House conservatives allow the deal to proceed and how fast Republicans can assemble a reconciliation package that satisfies both their right flank and the Senate’s procedural rules.nbcnews +1 For now, GOP leaders are betting that a phased reopening of DHS, coupled with a promise of robust, long-term funding for ICE and CBP on Republican terms, will be enough to quiet public anger over missed paychecks and airport chaos without surrendering ground on immigration enforcement policy.axios +1