WASHINGTON — The Senate agreed unanimously early Friday to fund the Department of Homeland Security after a 40-day shutdown, but without funding for immigration enforcement and deportation operations.
Senators approved the package at 2:20 a.m by voice vote following a marathon session, hours after President Donald Trump announced that he would sign an order to immediately pay Transportation Security Administration officers.
The funding lapse has seen them go without pay, leading many to call out of work and causing extreme delays at airports of up to four hours.
Travelers wait in line at a TSA checkpoint at William P. Hobby Airport in Houston on March 9.Mark Felix / Bloomberg via Getty Images
The deal followed arduous bipartisan negotiations that occurred in fits and starts over the last six weeks. It is expected to have Trump’s support but faces an uncertain future in the House.
It would fund all of DHS except ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations and parts of Customs and Border Protection, which Democrats have refused to vote for without significant reforms to enforcement practices.
Referring to the possibility of the House considering the package later Friday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D) said “hopefully they’ll be around, and we can get at least a lot of the government opened up again, and then we’ll go from there.” He said he texted with Speaker Mike Johnson tonight.
FORSUBSCRIBERS
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer however reflected the deep divisions in Congress and said his party would keep fighting to ensure the government’s immigration enforcement program “does not get more funding without serious reform.”
Schumer added that this deal could have been done weeks ago and was “exactly what we wanted.”
The White House and Republicans declined to grant Democrats’ demands to restrict Trump’s immigration agenda, so they agreed to strip out ICE funding from the measure and pursue that in a separate party-line bill.
Democrats objected to an effort to pass that bill, blocking it from advancing.
Senate Republicans held a vote open for hours on Thursday as the two sides continued to negotiate, having traded offers for days.
Trump meanwhile announced that that he would instruct newly sworn-in Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to “immediately pay our TSA Agents in order to address this Emergency Situation.”
Trump’s backing could help corral votes in the Republican-controlled House despite some misgivings among conservatives about splitting off ICE funding.
This provision faces an uncertain future in the House.
The lower chamber can either debate and vote out the Senate-passed measures in the Rules Committee before bringing them to the floor under a simple majority vote, or Speaker Johnson can bring them to the floor “under suspension,” meaning two thirds of the House votes in favor of bringing them up.
The House was set to hold an unrelated vote at 10:00am before leaving for recess.
TSA officers missed their first full paychecks in mid-March, leading many to call out of work. Callout rates for TSA officers have exceeded 11% nationally, with rates at some airports passing 40%.
Trump sent ICE agents to airports to help TSA earlier this week. Unlike TSA officers, ICE agents continue to receive paychecks during the partial shutdown as a result of funding from the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill that Trump signed into law last year.
We’d like to hear from you about how you’re experiencing the partial government shutdown, whether you’re a TSA agent who can’t work right now or a federal employee who is feeling the effects at your agency. Please contact us at [email protected] or reach out to us here.
Democrats have demanded changes to ICE following the surge of immigration officers in Minneapolis and the killings of two U.S. citizens by federal officers there this year.
In social media posts reacting to Trump’s announcement, some Democrats said the president could’ve taken action earlier.
“Let the record show: Trump could’ve signed the executive order to pay TSA day 1,” Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., wrote on X. “TSA and federal workers did not have to miss a single paycheck.”
Trump had this week rejected an off-ramp to the DHS shutdown that would have funded all of DHS except ICE.
