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U.S. House passes DHS funding bill
After weeks of delay, the House voted Thursday to fund much of the Department of Homeland Security, but not its immigration enforcement operations, and sent the bipartisan package to President Donald Trump to sign, ending the longest agency shutdown in history.
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump signed the bipartisan legislation to fund the Homeland Security Department and end a record shutdown after the House approved it on Thursday.
This shutdown has lasted for 75 days as Democrats refused to fund Trump’s immigration enforcement operations without modifications.
House approves DHS funding
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The Associated Press reported that the House voted to fund most of the DHS but not its immigration enforcement operations.
FILE-The Senate side of the U.S. Capitol building is seen early in the morning on March 8, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Photo by J. David Ake/Getty Images)
DHS has been without regular funding since Feb. 14, resulting in struggles for workers, though much of President Donald Trump’s immigration plan that is key to the dispute is being funded separately.
The move by Congress comes as the Department of Homeland Security faces scrutiny after Trump ousted Kristi Noem as the agency's leader, installing Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin in the middle of the shutdown. The agency counts some 260,000 employees, across the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Coast Guard, FEMA and other operations.
This shutdown came on the heels of the 2025 government wide closure, which itself had set a record at 43 days. Countless employees have struggled with bills or simply quit their jobs.
After Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January, Trump agreed to a Democratic request that the Homeland Security legislation be separate from a bigger spending measure that became law.
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However, bipartisan negotiations didn’t materialize, and the DHS funding lapsed with no agreement on changes to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics.
According to the AP, the House’s narrow GOP majority has stalled out under House Speaker Mike Johnson, with the Republican Party engaged in disputes on a range of pending issues, including homeland security funding.
The Senate unanimously approved the bipartisan package in March, but the bill lagged in the House.
Immigration enforcement workers have mainly been paid through new cash — roughly $170 billion — that Congress approved as part of Trump’s tax cuts bill in 2025. Others, including at the TSA had to rely on Trump’s involvement through executive action to guarantee their paychecks. Most of its workers are considered essential and have remained on the job.
The Source: Information for this story was provided by The Associated Press. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.