US House approves Homeland Security funding bill, ending 2-month shutdown

Michael Hernandez

The US House of Representatives approved a bill Thursday to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ending a more than two-month shutdown that was the longest in history.

The House approved the Senate measure by a voice vote, teeing it up for US President Donald Trump to sign into law. The bill funds DHS broadly, but not its immigration enforcement operations — a key demand from Democrats who are seeking major reforms from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) before signing off on any further funds.

While Trump’s nationwide immigration crackdown has prompted protests across the country for nearly a year, demonstrations demanding an end to the policy accelerated after federal agents fatally shot two US protesters in the state of Minnesota in January.

It is unclear how much support the funding bill received from Democrats, as individual votes were not recorded. The Senate previously approved the bill in late March, and while House Speaker Mike Johnson initially balked at it, he allowed the vote to take place this week amid the immigration enforcement standoff.

Shortly after the vote, Johnson sought to portray Thursday’s vote as a political win for Republicans and the Trump administration.

“The net result of passing our reconciliation bill is that ICE and CBP are funded for three years, and Democrats got absolutely nothing for their political charade and shenanigans,” Johnson told reporters at the Capitol.

Johnson said the funding of the hot-button federal agencies would be taken up in a separate bill that will be taken up when Congress returns to Washington after a one-week break on May 12.