US House passes stopgap DHS funding bill after Republicans reject Senate deal | US politics
U.S. House Republicans rejected a bipartisan Senate agreement to temporarily fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and instead passed their own funding measure late Friday, extending a weeks-long budget recession that has crimped air travel.
The interim bill, which proposes fully funding DHS for eight weeks, passed by a vote of 213 to 203 after Republicans in the lower chamber refused to accept a Senate-passed deal that excluded money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and border patrol.
Although the White House says Donald Trump has finally ordered compensation for the staff, it is actually prolonging the standoff that has forced thousands of airport security personnel to work without pay.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement that “a funding measure that locks in the status quo is dead on arrival in the Senate, and Republicans know it.”
“Democrats will fund critical homeland security functions, but we will not give Trump’s lawless and deadly immigration militias a blank check without reforms.”
The late-night vote came after House speaker Mike Johnson called the earlier bipartisan Senate bill a “joke” to withhold money from the agencies responsible for carrying out Trump’s controversial deportation drive.
House Republicans instead introduced rival legislation that would fully fund Transportation Security Administration (TSA) personnel, as well as immigration agents and border patrol personnel.
Both chambers must pass the same version of the bill before it can be placed on the president’s desk.
With the federal funding cut and weeks of chaos at American airports expected to extend, the White House said Trump signed a memorandum of understanding on Friday instructing his administration to resolve the “unprecedented emergency” and find the funds needed to pay TSA wages.
Before the House approved the funding bill, DHS, which oversees multiple agencies including the TSA, posted on X that “TSA officers should begin seeing paychecks as early as Monday, March 30.”
The partial government shutdown has left TSA personnel who inspect passengers, luggage and cargo without pay since mid-February.
The impasse led to crushing delays. An Agence France-Presse reporter on Friday saw security lines stretching too far at Houston international airport and airport staff handing out bottled water.
The funding dispute centers on Democrats’ demands for reform of ICE, an agency that has faced nationwide criticism for its aggressive tactics.
Senators voted earlier Friday to fund DHS, excluding ICE and border patrol, through 2026.
This bill would provide funding for the TSA, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, among other operations. It did not include reforms proposed by Democrats.
The lack of ICE or border patrol funding would not prevent those agencies from conducting their operations, as the Republican-controlled Congress directed significant extra funding to both agencies in 2025.
Johnson said Republicans would not join the Senate’s efforts and criticized the Senate for being too close to the Democrats’ position.
“This gambit last night was a joke,” Johnson told reporters, complaining that the unanimous Senate bill left US borders unsecured.
The top House Republican and Trump ally said he had spoken to the president “who fully understands what we’re doing and why we’re doing it and supports it.”
The passage of the bill occurred before the Senate adjourned for two weeks; The House will begin its own recess on Friday, which could potentially mean longer pain for airline passengers and TSA workers.
“I have never been more disgusted with the failure of elected leadership in my life,” said Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).
“Although TSA officers will be paid, Fema workers, Coast Guard, CISA and other DHS workers are awaiting back pay. These are not abstractions. These are American fathers, mothers, sons and daughters who serve our country every day… and Congress deprived them of a paycheck and took a two-week paid vacation with our money.”
Trump has previously said he would not sign a funding agreement unless Congress passes a controversial bill that would overhaul how citizens can register to vote in US elections.
Republicans have majorities in both houses of Congress, but due to Senate rules, budget bills would require a certain number of Democratic votes to pass.
Hakeem Jeffries, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, said his party wants to force a House vote on the Senate’s bipartisan measure.
The political struggle has strained TSA services. Nearly 500 transportation security officials have resigned, according to the White House, and unplanned absences have increased since the partial shutdown began.
