Chairman of the Democratic Caucus Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., speaks during a news conference with House Democratic leadership at the US Capitol in Washington, Jan. 10, 2023.
Sarah Silbiger | Reuters
The US House on Tuesday voted 214-212 to approve a $70 billion funding package despite Democrats’ vows to oppose it. The vote was a test for House Speaker Mike Johnson as he tries to consolidate President Donald Trump’s priorities at home.
Its passage ends a months-long standoff over immigration enforcement that has shut down parts of the Department of Homeland Security.
Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, called the package “a blank check for $70 billion for ICE and border patrol, with no strings attached.”
“This comes after Republicans have already cut health care, and food aid, and they’ve already given ICE $140 billion in their Big Ugly Bill,” Aguilar said at a press conference Tuesday, referring to the Republicans’ 2025 tax and spending package often called the One Big Beautiful Bill. “Furthermore, this does not do a single thing to help the American people with their daily living expenses.”
All Democrats oppose the measure.
The package, which has broad support among the Republican congressional leadership, funds Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, both agencies under the Department of Homeland Security that were left out of the previous spending bill amid Democratic opposition.
The $70 billion in funding extends to the end of the Trump administration. It also ends a heated debate over immigration detention that began in January — after law enforcement officers killed two US citizens in Minneapolis as part of an immigration crackdown — and led to a government shutdown.
Trump had requested that the bill reach his desk on June 1. The package passed the Senate last Friday, with a vote of 52-47 without Democratic support.
Earlier on Tuesday, the outcome of the House version was far from certain, even if it only needed a simple vote to be approved. Johnson has struggled to rally the Republican Party as right-wing lawmakers say the measure doesn’t go far enough and some Democrats, who have a tough election coming up in November, have expressed concerns about immigration enforcement.
Republican Rep. Chip Roy, a Texas hardliner, told House leadership he was undecided, according to Politico. And Rep. Kevin Kiley, who switched his party affiliation from Republican to independent in March but still opposes the GOP, said he opposes the package without immigration enforcement changes.
Roy voted for the measure, while Kiley opposed it.
“I thought we had a great opportunity to come together as Congress to make those changes and rebuild trust and focus on strengthening immigration where a lot of people think it should be, for those who put public safety at risk,” Kiley said outside the House on Tuesday. “Instead, we do the opposite.”
Republicans have a slim majority in the House and could lose a handful of votes if Democrats are united in opposition.
The passage of the immigration aid package is a key hurdle for Johnson to clear, as he struggles to get Trump’s other priorities across the board in the dwindling number of days Congress will be in session before the 2026 midterm elections.
US House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, speaks to members of the media as he leaves the House Chamber during a vote at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, Tuesday, June 9, 2026.
Elizabeth Frantz Bloomberg | Getty Images
Johnson met with Trump on Tuesday about funding for ICE and CBP, and an effort to extend a section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 that allows the government to collect communications from people outside the US, including communications with Americans.
Section 702 of the law is set to expire on June 12 unless Congress extends it. Privacy hawks on both sides of the aisle have called for policy changes to protect US citizens from government intrusion, meaning Johnson will need to rely on some Democratic support to get any extension down the line. FISA Section 702 has always had supporters and foes in every political party.
On the other hand, Democrats threatened to withhold support after Trump nominated the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Bill Pulte as director of national intelligence. Pulte has no prior intelligence experience and has shown a willingness to use his position to go after Trump’s enemies.
“The discussions before Trump’s announcement about Bill Pulte were already in a critical place,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said at a press conference Monday. “And Donald Trump, as he often does, is throwing a hand grenade into those critical discussions by nominating Bill Pulte as director of national intelligence.”
Asked if he would let FISA expire, Jeffries said negotiations are still ongoing “but obviously in order to reach a credible negotiation, the effort to nominate Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence must be withdrawn immediately. Then we’ll see where we end up at the end of the week.”
Some Republicans also called on Trump to fire Pulte as acting director of national intelligence.
“FISA gives us more than 50% of our most sensitive intelligence and has enabled the US to stop many terrorist attacks,” Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., a centrist who is retiring at the end of this Congress, posted on X on Monday. “Allowing FISA to expire will show a country crippled by hyper-partisanship and inefficiency. POTUS can help by canceling plans to appoint Bill Pulte as acting DNI.”
–Garrett Downs contributed to this story.
