House passes DHS funding bill as lawmakers start recess without shutdown’s end

The House of Representatives passed a stopgap measure late Friday that would temporarily fund the Department of Homeland Security, but the 43-day shutdown could last for several more weeks.

The two-month funding extension approved by the House of Representatives will likely expire when it reaches the Senate; Any funding bill here must pass a 60-vote threshold, meaning the support of a handful of Democrats. That hurdle hasn’t stopped House GOP leadership from arguing that rejecting a Senate-passed deal and then submitting a competing DHS funding proposal is their way out of the shutdown.

“We’re not going to separate the two most important institutions of government and leave them hanging like that,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters as he left the U.S. Capitol on Friday night. “We couldn’t do that.”

“House Republicans will have no role in reopening the border and stopping illegal immigration enforcement,” Johnson said on “The Ingraham Angle” earlier Friday in a harsh repeal of the Senate-passed agreement that blocked funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and parts of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

TSA CALLS AFFECTED HOUSTON, ATLANTA AND NEW ORLEANS THE MOST, AND 450 POLICE POLICE QUIT THE NATIONWIDE

But a full court presser by House Republicans aimed at convincing the Senate to return to Washington and pass the bill will likely be ignored in the upper chamber.

“The easiest way to end this shutdown is for the House to pass the bill that passed the Senate,” a GOP aide told Fox News Digital.

“We know Democrats will not support a CR, in fact the Senate has tried to pass CRs for the last 40 days and Democrats have blocked Every. One. One,” they said.

After unanimously approving the DHS funding measure early Friday morning, senators left Washington, D.C., for a two-week Easter recess, with some traveling abroad with congressional delegations.

“I would recommend that the Senate come back and at least get a vote,” House Republican Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain said Friday. he said. “That’s what they were chosen for. So they’re going to be on holiday for two weeks and people don’t get paid and they don’t come back. It’s pretty sad.”

Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, also issued a statement late Friday urging the Senate to return to Washington “immediately” to take up the House-passed measure.

Parliamentarians are also scheduled to go on recess for the next two weeks.

Those holding the tabs in the interchamber fight were the tens of thousands of DHS employees who worked without pay during the shutdown.

President Donald Trump moved Friday to protect TSA agents from further financial hardship by taking executive action directing DHS to pay those employees with existing funds.

Nearly 50,000 agents missed two paychecks during the ongoing funding blackout, forcing hundreds to quit their jobs and forcing others to grapple with mounting financial hardship.

The president’s move is likely to ease long wait times at TSA security checkpoints, but top officials warned of long-term impacts as more than 500 agents resigned as funding ran out.

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before departing for Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Friday, March 20, 2026, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio listens. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo)

DEMS BLOCKS DHS FUNDS AFTER REJECTING GOP COUNTER, THUNE SAYS SCHUMER ‘GOES IN CIRCLES’

However, paychecks for other DHS personnel, such as those employed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the U.S. Coast Guard, and certain support personnel working for ICE and CBP, will be withheld until the department’s funding is restored.

“Everyone who comes to work deserves to get their paycheck, and the Senate needs to come back and at least do its job,” McClain told Fox News on Friday. he said.

Democratic lawmakers are sure to spend the next few weeks blaming Republicans for the stalemate that followed Johnson’s decision to reject the Senate deal.

“We’re dealing here with a partisan spending bill that the Senate already stated was dead on arrival,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said on the House floor Friday. he said. “And so Republicans decided to firmly embrace this shutdown. There’s no question about it.”

The short-term DHS funding patch passed by the House is a clean extension of government funding and does not involve partisan policy supporters.

Trump also spoke out against the bill in an interview with Fox News on Friday afternoon.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R.S.D.) did not believe that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (DY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (DY) would be honest brokers in the upcoming DHS negotiations. (Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD FOX NEWS APPLICATION

The bill does not include any reforms that Democrats have been demanding for six weeks to rein in immigration enforcement, including tightening arrest warrant requirements and banning agents from wearing masks.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R.S.D.), who has warned throughout the funding stalemate that no one wins in a shutdown, said Democrats are less likely to meet those demands than when the funding cuts first began.

“I mean, I think the ship has sailed, and they kind of kissed that opportunity goodbye by not funding these agencies,” Thune said.