Congress has passed a bill to end the record-breaking shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), restoring funding to most of the agency after 76 days without a budget. The House approved the Senate-passed measure on Thursday (April 30) by voice vote, meaning individual votes were not recorded, and sent the legislation to President Donald Trump, who has promised to sign it into law.
The new legislation will fund critical agencies within DHS, including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Coast Guard, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, through September, the end of the current fiscal year. However, it does not fund immigration enforcement agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol, which have been operating with money from previous appropriations.
The shutdown began in February after a standoff between Democrats and Republicans over immigration policy, sparked by a fatal shooting involving federal immigration agents in Minnesota. Democrats demanded new limits on enforcement tactics, while Republicans refused, arguing it would undermine the Trump administration’s agenda. After weeks of impasse, pressure from the White House and concerns about missed paychecks for thousands of DHS workers, including TSA staff who have worked without pay and, in many cases, quit, pushed House leaders to move the bill forward. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin had recently warned that the department was about to run out of money for payroll.
While the bill includes some previously negotiated guardrails on immigration enforcement, it does not include key Democratic priorities such as requiring judicial warrants for arrests or banning the use of masks by officers. House Speaker Mike Johnson acknowledged the bill was “haphazardly drafted” but said it was necessary to avert further chaos, including airport delays and halted homeland security operations. Over 1,100 TSA agents have resigned during the shutdown, and World Cup preparations in American cities were disrupted.
Republicans now plan to pursue additional funding for ICE and Border Patrol through a party-line process that bypasses the Senate filibuster. President Trump has demanded this funding package reach his desk by June 1. Until then, only non-immigration parts of DHS are fully funded.
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