House passes DHS funding patch as shutdown set to become longest in history
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
House Republicans passed a short-term funding patch for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) late Friday evening over strong objections from Democratic lawmakers.
But the 42-day shutdown that has disrupted air travel and left tens of thousands of federal workers without pay is far from over.
House lawmakers approved a two-month funding extension for the beleaguered department, which has operated without full-year appropriations since the funding cuts began on Feb. 14, by a largely party-line vote of 213 to 203.
Reps. Don Davis, D.C., Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash. and Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, crossed party lines to support the measure. More than a dozen MPs did not vote.
DEMOCRATS RIP TRUMP’S MOVEMENT TO THE ICE AIRPORT IN 40 DAYS: ‘NO REASON’
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., successfully passed a two-month funding extension for the Department of Homeland Security, but the measure has a very good chance of passing the Senate. (Nathan Posner/Anatolia via Getty Images)
The DHS measure, which passed the House, faces an uphill battle in the Senate, where Democrats have been distorting GOP-drafted legislation that includes immigration funding for the past six weeks.
Both chambers are scheduled to leave Washington for the Easter recess without ending the funding impasse, making the partial government shutdown the longest in history.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said on Ingraham Angle Friday evening: “We’re going to figure this out with the Democrats in these eight weeks and figure out a few reforms or whatever they need to make sure we do it right, but we’re going to protect the homeland. We have to do it.” “This is the most important and fundamental function of Congress, and Democrats don’t want to do it.”
Democratic lawmakers who have repeatedly voted against DHS spending bills that fund President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration without reforms echoed that stance Friday.
“Republicans in the House chose to harass you, create chaos for you and your families so they could continue shoving their far-right ideology down the throats of the American people so they could continue spending billions of dollars on ICE. [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] “Brutting and killing American citizens,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said at a news conference Friday.
The vote came after House GOP leadership and the conservative House Freedom Caucus flatly rejected a deal that passed the Senate earlier Friday. The agreement, which passed the Senate unanimously, would fund the vast majority of DHS subsidiaries, excluding ICE, and some of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The National Border Patrol Council approved the House bill late Friday, arguing that the Senate’s failure to fully fund DHS “is completely unacceptable and should not be relied upon.”
The House Freedom Caucus sharply criticized the agreement passed by the Senate on Friday, arguing that the upper chamber has turned its back on federal immigration officials. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
JAYAPAL DOUBLES ANTI-ICE TERRORIST ALLEGATIONS AS DHS CLOSURE TRIGGERS HISTORIC TRAVEL CHAOS
Senate Republicans have proposed a second “big, beautiful” bill that would provide additional funding for ICE and Border Patrol, but that could be a difficult feat in an election year with slim majorities in both chambers.
“It wasn’t good. It wasn’t appropriate,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News on Friday, referring to the Senate agreement. “You can’t have a bill that doesn’t fund ICE.”
House GOP leadership also expressed concerns about funding ICE and Border Patrol through a second budget reconciliation package.
“This is a very difficult task. It’s a high-risk gamble for us to assume we can do this,” Johnson told Ingraham Angle. “And by the way, people are still not getting paid for it. We need to make sure we’re taking care of the people who are taking care of us.”
President Donald Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., criticized the Senate DHS spending bill on Friday for not including funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo; Win McNamee/Getty Images)
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD FOX NEWS APPLICATION
The plan is to ease the shortage of Transportation Security Administration workers at airports across the country, the most immediate pain point of the shutdown. Staffing restrictions have created hours-long wait times at TSA security checkpoints, leading to travel disruptions and missed flights.
Trump, through an executive order, directed DHS to make payments to cover the salaries of more than 50,000 TSA personnel who reported working without compensation since the start of the shutdown. Agents are expected to receive their first paycheck in more than six weeks on Monday.
