The House approved a short-term measure Wednesday to fund every agency under the Department of Homeland Security at current levels through May 22, part of ongoing efforts to end a partial government shutdown that began Feb. 14. The 60-day continuing resolution cleared the House in a 213 to 203 vote after the Rules Committee adopted a rule that deemed the underlying bill passed automatically once the rule was adopted, so there was no separate final-passage vote on the bill itself. Three Democrats — Reps. Henry Cuellar (Texas), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Washington) and Don Davis (North Carolina) — joined all voting Republicans in support.
The House move comes after the Senate, ahead of a two-week recess, approved a different bill overnight in a voice vote that funds most of DHS but explicitly carves out U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and parts of Customs and Border Protection. The Senate measure did not include the immigration-enforcement reforms Democrats had sought following fatal confrontations involving federal officers in Minnesota. Senate leaders said the bipartisan deal funds key components such as TSA, Coast Guard, FEMA and cybersecurity personnel, but leaves immigration enforcement agencies separate.
House conservatives swiftly opposed the Senate bill, pressing GOP leaders to reattach funding for immigration enforcement and to add a voter ID provision. The House Freedom Caucus said it would not support the Senate deal unless those conditions were met, complicating any attempt to send the Senate bill back to the upper chamber. Speaker Mike Johnson denounced the Senate language as unacceptable, called the overnight maneuver a “joke,” and said House Republicans would instead advance a clean 60-day measure that funds all DHS components, including ICE. Johnson said the plan has the support of President Trump.
Democrats countered that they would not fund immigration enforcement without reforms and signaled they would insist on changes. House Democratic leaders repeatedly urged Republican counterparts to bring the Senate-approved bill to the floor immediately, saying it had the votes to pass in the House and end airport disruptions. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats were prepared to support the Senate bill and that “this could end, and should end, today.” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called any proposal that funds the entire department without reforms “dead on arrival” in the Senate.
Procedural obstacles complicated the path forward in the House. The Rules Committee cleared the rule for the GOP 60-day measure along party lines, and Republicans faced attendance and vote-counting challenges that made party-line maneuvering tight. A procedural “previous question” motion to end debate — which, if defeated, could allow Democrats to bring the Senate bill to the floor — was discussed but is rarely defeated; it has not failed since 1988. House leaders warned votes could come late into Friday night, with members reconvening and votes expected after evening sessions.
The impasse has had immediate consequences for frontline workers. TSA officers missed a second full paycheck amid the lapse in funding; TSA reported 510 officers had quit since the shutdown began. President Trump signed a presidential memorandum directing the Homeland Security secretary and the Office of Management and Budget director to use funds “that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations” to restart pay for TSA officers who have been working without compensation. DHS said the process to pay workers had begun and that TSA officers could begin seeing paychecks as early as March 30. The department blamed congressional Democrats for the funding lapse, while the White House framed the action as necessary to relieve “emergency” circumstances.
Senate Republican leaders said the upper chamber’s passage of a bill that excludes ICE and parts of CBP reflected a compromise after intense negotiations failed to reconcile Democratic demands for enforcement reforms. Senate Majority Leader John Thune suggested Republicans had made a final offer, and after the House moved its own 60-day plan, some Republicans proposed funding immigration enforcement through the reconciliation process — a path likely to face significant hurdles given the narrow GOP majority and lack of Democratic support.
With the Senate headed into recess and House leaders at odds over whether to take up the Senate-passed bill, the shutdown remained unresolved even after the House vote. Democrats maintained they could provide votes to pass the Senate measure in the House if given the opportunity, while conservative Republicans held firm that they would not accept a bill that did not fund immigration enforcement. The divergent plans mean a durable end to the shutdown was still uncertain.