Congressional GOP leaders said Wednesday they will quickly move to end the Department of Homeland Security shutdown after President Donald Trump set a hard deadline for Republicans to fund immigration enforcement.
The statement from Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson comes after Trump set a June 1 deadline for Republicans to fund ICE and Border Patrol through the party-line budget process called reconciliation — giving them an off-ramp from the weeks-long fight over the administration’s immigration enforcement strategy that has been at the heart of the DHS shutdown.
“In the coming days, Republicans in the Senate and House will be following through on the President’s directive by fully funding the entire Department of Homeland Security on two parallel tracks: through the appropriations process and through the reconciliation process,” Thune and Johnson said in a joint statement.
A White House official, granted anonymity to discuss internal thinking, said the administration supports the GOP leaders’ plan. The White House and congressional Republican leadership have been working since late last week to mutually agree on a reconciliation plan before Congress returns on April 13, according to two people with knowledge of the conversations and granted anonymity to describe them.
Trump’s Wednesday demand for Republicans to use the procedural tool that circumvents a Democratic Senate filibuster comes as the DHS shutdown moves further into record-breaking territory.
“We are going to work as fast, and as focused, as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE Agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won’t be able to stop us,” the president posted on Truth Social.
The president’s post essentially endorsed the approach favored by Thune. And the plan he subsequently detailed with Johnson mirrors the strategy the Senate had already been pitching — funding most of DHS through a bipartisan deal with Democrats and then using the reconciliation process to enact funding for ICE and Border Patrol.
It’s also a U-turn for Johnson and House Republicans who rejected the Senate deal Friday, saying they could not support a bill that did not include funding for immigration enforcement agencies.
“They sent us a bill that literally put the number zero in the bill for the funding of border security and customs and immigration enforcement,” Johnson said Tuesday during an interview with Fox and Friends. “We can’t do that. That was the biggest issue in the 2024 election.”
The soonest Senate Republicans could attempt to pass their bill to fund most of DHS again is Thursday morning, when the Senate convenes for a brief pro forma session. In order to move the bill forward, the Senate would need unanimous approval from all 100 senators — and a few GOP senators have publicly bashed the deal since it was struck on Friday.
Both the House and Senate have adjourned for two weeks, leaving Washington with lawmakers pointing fingers at each other. Democrats have dug in and refused to fund immigration enforcement agencies without constraints on how agents can operate.
The president’s post on Truth Social didn’t specify whether he wants the reconciliation bill to be confined solely to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol funding. Previously, Trump had indicated that he wanted pieces of the GOP voting bill, known as the SAVE America Act, included. Congressional Republicans are also mulling trying to include Iran war funding in their reconciliation push.
Thune and Johnson said Wednesday the bill will include border security and immigration enforcement funding through the rest of the Trump administration. Some GOP lawmakers have suggested going further and funding ICE and CBP for 10 years — the maximum allowed under reconciliation rules.
Reconciliation is an intensive multistep process, requiring the House and Senate to first agree on a consensus fiscal blueprint known as a budget resolution.
Neither GOP leaders nor Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who made a separate statement, specified when either the chamber would move to take up a budget resolution. But the Senate is expected to move first, according to two people granted anonymity to disclose internal strategy.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Wednesday that if there isn’t a deal to reopen DHS by the time Congress comes back “you’ll see a skinny reconciliation bill move very quickly through the Senate and the House.”
But many House Republicans have been wary of moving nonenforcement DHS funding first because of their skepticism that the Senate will actually pass more ICE and Border Patrol funding through reconciliation. Some signaled Wednesday they are not on board with the new plan.
“Funding for ICE and CBP must never be separated from DHS funding,” Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas) wrote on X. “If Republicans isolate it, they’re handing our border and ICE agents straight to the radicals who will defund and dismantle them every chance they get. Fund DHS fully, or the open borders globalists win.”
Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.
