The House on Wednesday approved a short-term funding measure to keep all agencies under the Department of Homeland Security operating at current levels through May 22, part of efforts to end a partial government shutdown that began Feb. 14. The 60-day continuing resolution passed 213 to 203 after the Rules Committee adopted a rule that treated the underlying bill as passed when the rule was adopted, so there was no separate final-passage vote. Three Democrats — Reps. Henry Cuellar (Texas), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Washington) and Don Davis (North Carolina) — joined all voting Republicans in support.
The House action followed an overnight Senate voice-vote approval, before a two-week recess, of a different measure that funds most DHS components but explicitly excludes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and portions of Customs and Border Protection. That Senate measure, negotiated as a bipartisan compromise, left out the immigration-enforcement reforms Democrats sought after deadly confrontations involving federal officers in Minnesota. Senate leaders described the bill as covering key elements such as TSA, the Coast Guard, FEMA and cybersecurity personnel while keeping immigration enforcement separate.
Conservative House Republicans quickly rejected the Senate text, pressing GOP leaders to restore funding for immigration enforcement and to add a voter ID requirement. The House Freedom Caucus said it would not support the Senate package unless those demands were met, complicating prospects of sending the Senate bill back to the upper chamber. Speaker Mike Johnson criticized the Senate language as unacceptable, called the overnight action a “joke,” and moved a clean 60-day measure that funds every DHS component, including ICE — a plan he said has President Trump’s support.
Democrats insisted they would not agree to restore full immigration-enforcement funding without reforms and signaled they would demand changes if funding were to be approved. House Democratic leaders urged Republicans to take up the Senate-approved bill immediately, saying it had enough support to pass in the House and could end airport disruptions. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats were prepared to back the Senate bill and that the impasse “could end, and should end, today.” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer warned that any proposal funding the entire department without reforms would be “dead on arrival” in the Senate.
Procedural dynamics in the House added complexity. The Rules Committee approved the rule for the GOP 60-day plan on party lines, and attendance and tight vote margins left little room for maneuver. House officials discussed using a “previous question” motion to limit debate — a motion rarely defeated and not failed since 1988 — a tactic that, if it failed, could have allowed Democrats to force consideration of the Senate bill.
The shutdown has had immediate effects on frontline personnel. TSA officers missed a second full paycheck during the lapse in funding, and the agency 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 identify funds with a “reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations” to restart pay for TSA officers working without compensation. DHS said the process to restore pay had begun and that some officers could see paychecks as soon as March 30. The department and the White House blamed congressional Democrats for the funding lapse, while the White House framed the memorandum as an emergency measure to relieve frontline workers.
Senate Republican leaders characterized the upper chamber’s bill — which omitted ICE and parts of CBP — as a compromise after negotiations failed to reconcile Democratic demands for enforcement reforms. Senate Majority Leader John Thune suggested Republicans had made a final offer. In the House, some Republicans proposed pursuing funding for immigration enforcement through the reconciliation process, though that route faces substantial obstacles given the narrow GOP Senate majority and lack of Democratic support.
With the Senate entering recess and House leaders split over whether to take up the Senate-passed bill, the shutdown remained unresolved despite the House vote. Democrats said 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 left immigration enforcement unfunded. Those competing positions left the timing and terms of a durable end to the shutdown uncertain.