DHS funding bill passes House, but shutdown drags on as Senate approves its own plan

The House passed a measure to fund every agency under the Department of Homeland Security at current levels through May 22, marking the latest attempt to end a partial government shutdown that began on Feb. 14. 

The measure cleared the House in a 213 to 203 vote, with three Democrats voting with all Republicans in favor. The rule for the short-term bill included a provision that allowed the legislation to be automatically passed once the House adopted the rule, so there was no standalone vote on the legislation itself.

The three Democrats who voted for the measure were all moderates from competitive districts: Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington and Don Davis of North Carolina.

Still, the shutdown appears far from coming to a resolution as the 60-day funding measure heads to the Senate, which began a two-week recess after unanimously passing a different bill overnight following weeks of stalled negotiations. The Senate legislation funds all of DHS except ICE and parts of CBP. It did not include most of the reforms to federal immigration enforcement that Democrats demanded after federal officers fatally shot two Americans in Minnesota. 

House conservatives quickly opposed the Senate bill, demanding that lawmakers reattach funding for immigration enforcement and add a voter ID provision. House Republicans ultimately landed on a short-term measure to fund the entire department for two months that could pass the lower chamber with a simple majority. 

House Democrats, meanwhile, said they would not approve funding for immigration enforcement without a number of reforms, which Republicans have repeatedly rejected. Democrats indicated they would provide the necessary votes to get the Senate-passed bill through the lower chamber, but House Speaker Mike Johnson refused to put it on the floor. 

The House is now voting on its bill to fund DHS. If it passes, the measure will head to the Senate, where it faces an uncertain fate.

Following about an hour of debate, the House is now holding a procedural vote that, if it passes, will pave the way for the body to vote on the DHS funding measure.

If a vote on the "previous question motion" — which is used to end debate — is defeated, then Democrats could bring the Senate's competing DHS funding bill for a vote.

During the House Rules Committee meeting, Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado signaled that Democrats would try to force a vote on the Senate bill by using the procedural tool, which would give them control of the House floor. But a "previous question" hasn't been defeated since 1988.

Members of the House reconvened late Friday night, ahead of a vote to reopen DHS that could take place between 10:30 p.m. and 11 p.m.

The House's measure would fund DHS until late May. But it conflicts with the Senate's plan to end the shutdown for most components of DHS while carving out ICE and most of Customs and Border Protection.

The House has adjourned until 9:30 p.m., with a vote on reopening DHS for 60 days expected later tonight. Voting is expected to begin at some point after 10:30 p.m., following debate. 

There won't be a final passage vote on the funding extension bill, which is unusual. During a two-hour meeting on Friday afternoon, the House Rules Committee adopted a rule along party lines for the 60-day measure that would deem the underlying bill automatically passed without a separate final-passage vote.

The measure would still need to pass the Senate, which approved its own bill to fund most of DHS while carving out some immigration enforcement agencies early Friday morning.

The House plans to reconvene at 8 p.m. and final votes on the 60-day funding bill are expected to begin around 10:30 p.m. 

If the rule is adopted when the full House votes tonight, it would kick DHS funding back to the Senate. 

A House vote on the GOP's continuing resolution to reopen DHS could happen in the next couple of hours, according to Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, who leads the House Rules Committee. 

"The whip has just announced that we could have votes as early as 8 p.m., but please stay tuned to additional updates," Foxx said during the committee's meeting on the DHS bill. 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Democrats are "working to maximize our attendance" for the expected votes on House Republicans' plan. 

"It's our understanding that Republicans have attendance challenges on the other side," Jeffries said. 

Both parties had attendance issues during a vote Friday morning. Republicans had 11 absences, while Democrats had 9. 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the bipartisan Senate bill funding most of DHS has enough votes to pass in the lower chamber. 

"This could end, and should end, today," Jeffries said at a news conference. "House Democrats are prepared to support the bill." 

"If that bill is brought to the floor today, it will pass," he added. "And the shutdown will be over." 

Asked about his stance on the 60-day offer from Republicans, Jeffries reiterated that the Senate bill should be put on the floor because it "has the votes to pass today." 

House Democratic leadership released a statement Friday afternoon calling on their Republican counterparts to begin consideration of the Senate-passed legislation "immediately." 

The statement from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Minority Whip Katherine Clark and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar did not address the 60-day measure that House Republicans have put forward, but it argued that the House GOP is the "only thing standing between the American people and a much-needed end to the airport chaos." 

"After weeks of Republican obstruction, there is now bipartisan legislation that has passed the Senate that funds the TSA, Coast Guard, FEMA and our cybersecurity professionals," it said. "The House should consider the bipartisan DHS funding bill immediately." 

House GOP leaders notified members that votes are expected later Friday after the Rules Committee finishes its work. 

"Upon completion of Rules Committee business, votes are expected in the House this evening," says the notice from House Majority Whip Tom Emmer. 

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that TSA has "immediately" begun the process of paying workers in response to Mr. Trump's directive and employees will soon begin receiving their paychecks. 

"TSA officers should begin seeing paychecks as early as Monday, March 30," the department said. "TSA is grateful to the President and Secretary for their leadership to put money back into the pockets of TSA employees who worked without pay during the ongoing Democrat DHS shutdown."

The Department of Homeland Security blamed congressional Democrats for the ongoing lapse in funding and said that as a result, TSA officers are losing their homes and cars, and struggling to feed their families.

"President Trump has made the decision that echoes what TSA's frontline employees and the millions of Americans enduring terrible wait times at our airports are saying: the Democrat DHS shutdown has become an emergency," it said.

Mr. Trump on Friday signed a presidential memorandum to restart pay for TSA officers and employees who have continued to work without compensation during the funding lapse for DHS. The president announced Thursday that he would take unilateral action to ensure they would be paid.

The memo directs Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought to use funds "that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations" to pay those workers.

"If Democrats in the Congress will not act to honor the service of our TSA officers, who are now performing their critical public safety responsibilities without knowing whether they will be able to buy food for their families or pay their rent, then my Administration will take action," the directive states. "As President of the United States, I have determined that these circumstances constitute an emergency situation compromising the Nation's security."

The House Rules Committee is set to meet at 3:30 p.m. to begin considering Republicans' 60-day continuing resolution. The committee is often the last stop for legislation before it is taken up on the House floor. 

If it clears the committee, the next step would be a party-line procedural vote on the House floor. House Speaker Mike Johnson can only afford to lose one vote if all members are present and voting. If it survives the procedural vote, it moves on to a vote on final passage. A simple majority is needed for both. 

Republicans had attendance issues during an unrelated floor vote on Friday morning, with 11 members absent. Democrats had 9 absences. Attendance issues could push any potential floor action into the weekend. 

When asked whether the vote on the House GOP's proposal would happen Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters it would be "as soon as possible." 

House Speaker Mike Johnson lambasted the funding legislation approved by the Senate overnight, calling the provisions that carve out ICE and parts of Customs and Border Protection "alarming."

"This gambit that was done last night is a joke," he said. "I'm quite convinced that it can't be that every Senate Republican read the language of this bill."

Johnson said the House is going to take up the stopgap measure that will fund all the agencies under the Department of Homeland Security at current funding levels to May 22.

"We're not going to risk not funding the agencies that keep the American people safe," he said.

Johnson accused Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and members of his party of "forcing" the funding bill on the upper chamber.

"It is unconscionable to me that the Democrats would force some sort of negotiation at 3 o'clock in the morning and try to hoist this among the American people, and then get on their jets and go home for their holiday and pretend and think that we're going to go along with that," he told reporters.

Johnson said he spoke with Mr. Trump about the plan for a 60-day continuing resolution and said the president supports it.

Democrats "want to use people as pawns. People are not pawns. These are workers who are sacrificially serving the country, many of them without pay, to make sure that you and your families are safe, and we're done with it," he said. 

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said that a proposal that funds the entirety of the Department of Homeland Security for 60 days would go nowhere in the upper chamber, calling such a plan "dead on arrival."

"We've been clear from day one: Democrats will fund critical Homeland Security functions — but we will not give a blank check to Trump's lawless and deadly immigration militia without reforms," he said in a statement. 

Schumer said Republicans know that any legislative proposal that maintains the status quo for the department would fail to garner the support needed to advance in the Senate.

House Speaker Mike Johnson told House Republicans on a conference-wide call that he's considering a tentative plan for a clean 60-day continuing resolution that would fund all of the Department of Homeland Security, including ICE, instead of the Senate-passed bill, according to a source familiar with the proposal.

 The plan would send the measure back to the Senate and remains under discussion, with challenges expected in the upper chamber.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, said there's "overwhelming support" among Democrats to pass the Senate deal, and also signaled that they could step in to help advance it during a procedural vote that is typically along party lines, if it comes to that. 

"There was overwhelming support expressed to pass this bipartisan bill today so we can pay TSA agents, stop inconveniencing millions of Americans and end the airport chaos," Jeffries said. 

When asked whether Democrats would help advance a rule, Jeffries said Democrats "haven't had that conversation, but we're prepared to do what's necessary to end the chaos today." 

The conservative House Freedom Caucus said it will not support the current DHS funding deal, complicating quick passage in the lower chamber. The group demanded that the House reattach funding for immigration enforcement, as well as add a voter ID provision, before sending it back to the Senate. 

Their opposition means GOP leaders face major hurdles in bringing up the legislation through the Rules Committee and advancing it to a vote on final passing via a party-line simple majority vote. 

GOP Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, the group's chairman, said they have made it clear to GOP leaders that they will not provide their votes to pass it under suspension of the rules, meaning it would need strong backing from Democrats to reach the two-thirds majority threshold.

"The only thing we're going to support is adding that funding into the bill, adding voter ID, sending it back to the Senate," Harris said, calling it a "bad" deal. 

"We stand united," he said. 

GOP Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, a member of the Rules Committee, said it's "offensive" that the Senate would approve a bill that does not fund immigration enforcement. 

"Could the Senate be any more lazy than to send to us a bill that doesn't do the job and then leave town," Roy said. "We're going to stand up and say no to that." 

House Freedom Caucus members are currently huddling in Johnson's office. 

House Democratic leadership advised members that additional votes related to DHS funding "are possible today and throughout the weekend."  In a notice Friday, House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, said that "members are encouraged to remain in D.C. Additional information about the vote schedule will be announced as soon as it becomes available." 

Today TSA workers are missing their second full paycheck since the shutdown began. Soon after the shutdown began, they received paychecks with half pay.

It'll take about five business days before they can receive any pay — whether that's through President Trump's order or congressional action to fund DHS.

Since the beginning of the shut down, 510 TSA officers have quit, according to TSA, as of Friday afternoon.

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, a Minnesota Republican, said Republicans are "working through the procedural issues" and noted that they could not bring up the Senate bill through suspension of the rules without changing the rules. House rules prevent moving bills under suspension of the rules on days other than Monday, Tuesday and Wednesdays. 

GOP Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, the chairwoman of the House Rules Committee, has been in and out of the House speaker's office Friday morning. 

House GOP leaders did not commit Friday morning to putting the Senate-passed legislation on the House floor. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that Republicans are meeting this morning to "decide next steps." 

He slammed Democrats over the measure, which excludes ICE and parts of CBP, calling it "infuriating" and accusing them of being "willing to inflict pain on the American people simply so they can defund the agency responsible for removing criminal illegal aliens," adding the approach is "detestable."

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Republicans are talking about "a couple of different options" and looking at the Senate bill to see if "that's something that we're going to process." 

A schedule released Thursday by House leadership says the lower chamber is set to return for legislative business at 9 a.m. Votes are expected to begin around 10 a.m. 

The schedule was released before the Senate approved DHS funding and did not list any DHS-related votes, but noted that "additional legislative items are possible."

House GOP leadership could decide to fast-track the bill by bypassing the House Rules Committee, but House rules prevent moving bills under suspension of the rules on days other than Monday, Tuesday and Wednesdays. That strategy would also require a two-thirds majority vote for passage and Democratic support. 

But it's also unclear if the bill can clear the Rules Committee and a party-line procedural vote on the floor, which would pave the way for passage by a simple majority. 

Ahead of its two-week recess, the Senate agreed to an off-ramp to end the 42-day partial shutdown that has centered on federal immigration enforcement. 

The deal that was approved in a voice vote after 2 a.m. funds all of DHS except ICE and parts of CBP.  The legislation did not include most of the reforms to federal immigration enforcement that Democrats demanded after federal officers fatally shot two Americans in Minnesota during Mr. Trump's immigration crackdown. 

There appeared to be some movement in negotiations this week, but talks ultimately fell apart as Democrats said the GOP's offer to fund all of DHS did not go far enough in meeting their demands. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said his party "held the line." 

"Throughout it all, Senate Democrats stood united — no wavering, no backing down," he said on the Senate floor after passage. "Senate Democrats were clear: no blank check for a lawless ICE and Border Patrol." 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said Thursday afternoon that Republicans sent Democrats their "last and final" offer. 

Shortly after, the Senate began a procedural vote on DHS funding, which was held open for more than six hours in hopes that there would be a breakthrough in negotiations. The vote ultimately failed. 

But Mr. Trump said he would sign an emergency order to pay TSA agents as travelers face long waits in airport security lines, which Thune said alleviated "the immediate pressure" to reach a deal. 

Mr. Trump's announcement appeared to pave the way for ending the impasse, which threatened to cut short the Senate's recess. 

After Friday's vote, Thune ruled out the possibility of immigration enforcement reforms, telling reporters that Democrats "kissed that opportunity goodbye" by failing to provide funding for those agencies. 

"I think that ship has sailed," he said. 

Republicans have vowed to fund immigration enforcement agencies through the reconciliation process, though the strategy is expected to face more hurdles with the GOP's narrow majority and a lack of Democratic support.