The House on Thursday passed a bill to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security, effectively ending the partial government shutdown that began in February.
The passage of the funding bill comes after more than a month of House Republican opposition to the plan, which passed unanimously in the Senate in late March. The White House had warned that emergency funding for DHS would end as soon as Friday.
“Speaker Johnson has extended the DHS shutdown for over a month for absolutely no reason. This is the same bill the Senate unanimously passed five weeks ago,” Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in a statement.
The bill closes the possibility of receiving many missed checks from the Transportation Security Administration, whose lack of pay earlier this year caused long lines at airports across the country.
TSA personnel work at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, on March 13, 2025.
Annabelle Gordon AFP | Getty Images
It does not include funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and parts of Customs and Border Protection, two DHS agencies tasked with immigration enforcement. Lawmakers are trying to fully fund ICE and CBP through a procedural tool known as budget reconciliation, which limits the Senate to 50 votes on spending measures, as opposed to the 60 votes normally needed to defeat a filibuster in the chamber.
The first step in budget reconciliation moved forward in the House on Wednesday. Lawmakers are working to finalize the final product by June 1, a self-imposed deadline to pass GOP immigration priorities set by President Donald Trump.
“To finish the job, the Senate and House Republicans must pass a reconciliation bill that fully funds ICE and the Border Patrol for the remainder of President Trump’s term,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, RS.C., chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, posted on X Thursday.
Democrats refused to fund DHS immigration enforcement after two US citizens were killed by federal agents during a January immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. Republicans have opposed demands by Democrats for changes to the Trump administration’s entry-level legislative policies, leading to a standoff that has lasted more than 70 days.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., initially opposed the Senate version of the bill, which lacks ICE and some CBP funding, and days later announced in a joint statement with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, RS.D., that the House has found a way forward and will take up the measure soon.
Johnson, under pressure from some GOP House members who opposed the removal of immigration enforcement dollars from the Senate proposal, introduced an amendment to the bill earlier this week, which would have extended the shutdown and required the upper chamber to re-enter.
Finally on Thursday, under pressure from Trump and with the clock running out before the congressional recess scheduled for one week starting Friday, Johnson made the move to send the bill to Trump’s desk.
