Senate Sends House DHS Funding Bill After GOP Leaders Reach Agreement
The chambers need to send an immigration enforcement plan to President Donald Trump by June 1
The Senate sent the DHS funding bill back to the House after Republicans caved and agreed to it.
From The Hill:
The Senate sent a bipartisan bill to fund the bulk of the department, aside from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol, to the lower chamber on Thursday by unanimous consent in an early morning pro forma session.
The House met for a few minutes for its own pro forma session shortly after, but did not attempt to advance the bill, which is facing resistance from hardline conservatives.
Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) was in attendance to monitor the situation, but said he likely would not have objected to a request to advance the bill. No Republican was present to object to such a move.
House Republican leaders will have a conference call this morning to hash out the details, “including assurances leaders have gotten from the White House and Senate about passing another reconciliation bill.”
The news comes days after many House Republicans, including Speaker Mike Johnson, railed against the Senate bill.
House Republicans expressed disgust at the lack of funding for ICE and the Border Patrol.
However, most of ICE and the Border Patrol have received funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill.
The funding did not include civilian support at ICE and the Border Patrol.
Bill Melugin tweeted this morning that President Donald Trump plans to use executive action to pay those people:
According to a memo that OMB sent to Congress, it appears the White House plans to take “additional executive action” to pay civilian support employees at ICE & CBP via the OBBB since they aren’t being paid now and won’t be paid through appropriations because the Senate DHS bill Republicans are agreeing to provides no funding for ICE & CBP.
It appears the WH intends to get those support employees paid via OBBB so they don’t want to wait until June for a reconciliation bill.
They haven’t been paid since mid February.
The highlighted portion in the image says:
All support staff, such as paralegals, processing coordinators, enforcement assistants, and criminal investigators assistants, among others, can be paid using funds from the WFTCA through additional executive action.
According to a memo that OMB sent to Congress, it appears the White House plans to take “additional executive action” to pay civilian support employees at ICE & CBP via the OBBB since they aren’t being paid now and won’t be paid through appropriations because the Senate DHS bill… pic.twitter.com/fnrjOsM9do
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) April 2, 2026
The shutdown has mainly affected the TSA, FEMA, and Coast Guard.
The original DHS funding bill would have funded the HSI (Homeland Security Investigations), which handles trafficking.
But the chambers need to send an immigration enforcement plan to President Donald Trump by June 1:
The Senate is expected to move first to approve a budget resolution that will unlock the GOP-only immigration bill, according to three people granted anonymity to disclose private strategy, and could adopt the fiscal blueprint for the final bill by the end of the month.
Thune said Thursday he has already had conversations with Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) about how to move as quickly as possible.
“Our theory of the case behind all this was to keep that thing as narrow and focused as possible, and that maximizes, I think, the speed at which we can do it and the support for it,” he said.
Both chambers are on recess until April 13.
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Comments
Trump has stated he won’t sign anything until the “Save America” act is passed. What’s the over under on him signing this?
IMO, 99% sure he’s gonna sign it. If he didn’t plan to do it he’d have more consistently backed the Speaker and HoR GoP rejection, though with Trump there’s always a chance he flips at the finish line.
Media is framing this as a fold by the Republicans.
In the near term, I’d agree. In the Senate Thune said we ain’t accepting a bill that doesn’t fully fund DHS, then in the dead of night at 03:00 on a voice vote with unanimous consent Thune accepted it and sent it to the HoR. The Speaker said nope,.rallied his.conference and they rejected it for six days. Suddenly for some reason the Speaker is on board. As is Trump who previously rejected less than full DHS funding.
Sausage making ain’t pretty in DC but the top GoP political leadership have got to stop drawing lines in sand if they can’t/won’t actually follow through. It undermines their credibility, PO the base. We’re tired of big talk followed by ‘do nothing’. Stop making these sorts of promises in public if you can’t/won’t deliver on them. Make the base trust you b/c you say what you mean and you mean what you say. FWIW that’s how get your opponents respect as well, when they know you ain’t just flapping your gums but will actually follow through.
Trump should have used his power to call both chambers of Congress back into session until they solve the shutdown and made clear that did not include any “future votes” or anything that did not include The Save Act.
Careful what you wish for. A recalled Congress could be surly and cranky (1), and they might vote against what the President wants.
(1) yes, yes, I know…
What power? They’re already in session.
“He may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both houses or either of them”, but they’re already convened, so what exactly do you think he could and should have done?
He can also resolve any disagreement between the houses as to when they want to adjourn, but there is no such disagreement. They’re both on a schedule of taking a series of three-day breaks until the 13th.