Washington– The Senate is expected to try to pass a quick measure on Thursday that would fund most of the Department of Homeland Security, though it’s unclear when the House would follow suit to largely end the longest partial government shutdown in history.
House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Wednesday announced a plan to fully fund the program Department of Homeland Security As part of a two-step process. The agreement puts leaders on the same page to end the impasse after they pursued separate plans that led to Congress leaving Washington last week without a resolution.
Johnson and Thune announced a return to the bipartisan Senate plan reached with Democrats that funds most of the department, except for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Border Patrol. Republicans will then try to fund those agencies on their own through partisan spending legislation that could take months to finish.
Neither outcome can be guaranteed, and the strategy is likely to face opposition from the ranks of the Republican Party President Donald Trump He gave his support.
“We appreciate and share the president’s determination to put an end to the Democratic DHS shutdown once and for all,” said Johnson, R-Los Angeles, and Thune, R-Fla.
House Republicans refused to approve the Senate plan last week excluding Immigration, Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, instead changing the bill to fully fund DHS for 60 days.
The DHS shutdown reached its 47th day on Wednesday. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement, “Republican divisions derailed a bipartisan agreement, making American families pay the price for their dysfunction.”
The two top Republicans are hoping to win over skeptical GOP colleagues, but more conservative lawmakers are likely to seek full funding for all of Trump’s immigration and deportations.
“Let’s make it simple: Give in to Democrats and not pay CBP and ICE agree to defund law enforcement and leave our borders wide open again,” Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., posted on X. “If this is the vote, I decline.”
The Senate meets in an early pro forma session on Thursday. These sessions generally last only a few minutes because the vast majority of senators are not present. Senators can take up the measure they passed last week only by requesting unanimous consent, allowing it to pass if no senator objects. The Senate action would then send the bill back to the House, which is also holding a pro forma session later in the morning.
Meanwhile, a tight budget package Trump wants to prepare later this year is expected to fund ICE and Border Patrol for the remainder of Trump’s term, as a way to try to ensure those agencies are no longer at risk from Democrats who object to the president’s immigration enforcement agenda. Trump said he wants to put this legislation on his desk by June 1.
“We will work as quickly and as focused as we can to renew funding for our border and customs agents, and the radical left Democrats will not be able to stop us,” Trump said.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries issued a statement after Johnson and Thune sent out their announcement, saying: “It’s time to pay TSA agents, end the airport chaos, and fully fund every part of DHS that has nothing to do with Donald Trump’s violent mass deportation machine.”
The vast majority of DHS workers continue to report to work during the shutdown, but several thousand remain without pay. That led to more Transportation Security Administration agents being called away from work, causing frustrating security lines at some of the nation’s largest airports. Those bottlenecks appear to have eased this week as agents began receiving back pay Executive order From Trump.
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Associated Press writer Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.