Trump signs bill to fund DHS to end record shutdown
U.S. President Donald Trump signed the bill providing funding to Department of Homeland Security agencies, including the Secret Service and Transportation Security Administration, ending a partial shutdown that has affected DHS operations for nearly 11 weeks.
That gridlock ended when the Republican-controlled House of Representatives unanimously passed a Senate-approved bill that conservatives refused to consider last month.
The House approved the legislation as officials warned that existing funding was running out, threatening chaos at airports and posing potential vulnerabilities to national security. It represented a victory for Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who had pressured House Republicans to pass the bill without any changes.
The legislation, which the Senate passed unanimously twice on March 27 and April 2, would provide funding to DHS agencies not involved in Trump’s immigration crackdown through Sept. 30, the end of fiscal year 2026.
These agencies include FEMA, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Calls for action on the broader DHS bill have intensified following Saturday’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, where prosecutors say a man tried to assassinate Trump.
The White House budget office also warned that affected homeland security operations would not be able to pay workers in May starting Friday.
Conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives and other conservatives opposed the DHS bill because the bill’s language does not provide funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol following the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens by immigration officers in Minneapolis.
“We had a crisis, and we had to do it. We kept the Homeland bill, the core funding bill, because we had to make sure they couldn’t isolate and eliminate these two critical institutions,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, who blamed Democrats for the bill’s lack of immigration enforcement funding.
Republican leaders managed to ease those objections on Wednesday by passing a $70 billion budget plan through the Senate to provide new money for ICE and Border Patrol; this plan allowed congressional committees to begin writing separate funding legislation for these agencies.
Republicans hope to pass the legislation in May using a special “budget reconciliation” procedure that allows them to overcome opposition from Democrats in the Senate.
“Now that that box is checked, we are allowed to go ahead and complete the rest,” Johnson said.
The two immigration enforcement agencies received more than $130 billion in funding last year through the same procedure; This is a huge boost that Trump is demanding to carry out his campaign of mass immigrant deportations. Funding for most of DHS ran out on Feb. 14 as Democrats pressured Republicans and the White House to accept new restrictions on ICE and Border Patrol.
Democrats insisted that immigration enforcement be subject to the same operational rules as police forces in the United States; This includes requiring judicial warrants before agents can enter private homes. However, negotiations that have been going on for weeks have reached an impasse.
Thune, the Senate’s top Republican, acknowledged the challenge he faces in unifying Johnson’s fractured 217-212 Republican majority as the House pushes for passage this week; This led to the consideration of the budget decision being postponed for more than five hours on Wednesday due to differences involving separate agricultural legislation.
