House votes to end Homeland Security shutdown with bill funding most agencies
by Lindsey McPherson · The Washington TimesThe House on Thursday ended the 76-day Department of Homeland Security shutdown as it cleared a Senate-passed bill funding most agencies.
The measure passed the House by voice vote after weeks of partisan finger-pointing over which party was delaying the shutdown that began Feb. 14 after Senate Democrats filibustered a full DHS funding bill seeking an overhaul of immigration enforcement agencies.
The two agencies that did not receive annual appropriations in the bill that the House cleared Thursday — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the border security functions of Customs and Border Protection — already have a separate stream of funding that has kept them operational throughout the shutdown.
The Senate passed the partial DHS funding bill nearly a month ago, but the House did not want to clear it until Republicans passed a separate party-line budget reconciliation measure funding ICE and CBP through the remainder of President Trump’s term.
The calculus on the sequencing changed after Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin warned that the department would run out of emergency funding at the end of the month to pay its workers during the shutdown, per President Trump’s April 3 executive order.
The White House also laid on the pressure, issuing a memo earlier this week asking House Republicans to immediately clear the partial DHS funding bill.
“We were not going to have lines at TSA,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said of the Transportation Security Administration that polices airports. “Everybody gets their paychecks now and will get them moving forward.”
The speaker said Republicans will soon “finish the work” and fund ICE and border patrol for three years “with no crazy Democrat reforms.”
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The House voted Thursday to adopt a budget resolution that unlocks the filibuster-proof reconciliation process Republicans are using to pass that bill without Democratic support.
The budget measure instructs the Homeland Security and Judiciary committees in both chambers to draft legislation by May 15 providing up to $75 billion for ICE and CPB.
Mr. Trump says he wants that bill on his desk by June 1.
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.