Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 05/01/2026 10:05:15 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
On the 76th day since Department of Homeland Security funding lapsed, Congress passed a bill Thursday restoring the flow of federal dollars to most of its agencies — without solving any of the policy disagreements that led to the record-breaking shutdown.
The House approved by voice vote the partial DHS funding measure the Senate passed more than a month ago. President Donald Trump is expected to swiftly sign the bipartisan legislation, fully funding the Coast Guard, TSA, Secret Service, FEMA and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, along with other offices within DHS that don’t deal with immigration enforcement.
Now congressional Republicans turn their attention to enacting tens of billions of dollars for Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a party-line package. They jump-started the process this week with the adoption of a framework unlocking special budget power to skirt the Senate filibuster.
“Democrats got absolutely nothing for their political charades and shenanigans,” Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters after passage of the bill.
In the more than 10 weeks since DHS funding lapsed, Democrats have remained largely united in refusing to support funding for the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement activities without new guardrails. Republicans, meanwhile, are doubling down on funding those agencies without strings — emphasizing a blunt partisan divide five months before the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.
Trump is demanding that the party-line bill, which would fund the controversial agencies for the remainder of his term, land on his desk by June 1. ICE and Border Patrol have been operating largely as normal during the shutdown due to funding previously provided in last year’s GOP megabill.
The upshot of the two-track approach to funding DHS is that there will be no changes to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics, which led to the shutdown stalemate that began in February after federal immigration agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens in Minnesota.
Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, the top Democrat on the DHS funding panel, told reporters Thursday afternoon it was “perfectly clear” that Republicans are “willing to do anything in order to preserve Trump’s right to run a completely out-of-control illegal agency.”
“We weren’t looking for comprehensive immigration reform,” Murphy added. “We wanted three or four targeted changes that would curb the illegality.”
After Senate negotiators gave up on trying to strike a bipartisan deal last month, House GOP leaders sat on the package funding nonenforcement agencies for weeks, scoffing at the late-night decision Senate leaders made last month to fund DHS through the two-step maneuver without consulting their House counterparts.
“You don’t dump things on the other chamber in the middle of the night without talking to the speaker about it,” House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told reporters this week. “This is created by bad management in Senate leadership and by not being transparent and open with us in the House.”
But pressure from the White House and some Republican lawmakers prompted House GOP leaders to ultimately pass the package unchanged, even after floating the idea of tweaking the bill and sending it back across the Capitol.
Johnson said Thursday that the Senate-passed bill was “haphazardly drafted” and that House Republicans needed to ensure they first launched the party-line process to fund immigration agencies before clearing the package sending cash to the rest of DHS.
“We threw a fit, and we had to,” the speaker said.
Trump administration officials have grown increasingly antsy to see the legislation enacted after nearly draining the $10 billion fund they have been tapping to cover paychecks for DHS workers. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin warned last week that his department would run out of payroll money in the coming days.
Under the package, all of DHS except ICE and Border Patrol will be funded through September, the end of the fiscal year.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said Thursday that Republicans are “absolutely horrified” to be funding the immigration agencies separately.
“The idea that we’re isolating Border Patrol and isolating ICE is offensive to the men and women who serve,” Roy said on the House floor before the bill was passed. “It is absolutely ridiculous that our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have done this to those men and women.”
The legislation includes some new guardrails on immigration enforcement tactics negotiated early this year. But it does not contain any of the additional rules Democrats sought, including barring immigration officers from wearing masks and requiring judicial warrants to make arrests or enter private property.
The end result of the funding lapse is largely what top Democrats have advocated for months as a fallback plan if Republicans wouldn’t agree to any new enforcement restrictions. Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the House’s top Democratic appropriator, introduced a bill more than two months ago to fund all but ICE, Customs and Border Protection and the Office of the Secretary at DHS.
“It is about damn time that you come forward and do this,” DeLauro said on the House floor Thursday before the measure passed. “I proposed it 79 days ago.”
Instead, House Republicans repeatedly passed legislation to fund all of DHS throughout the shutdown, daring lawmakers on the other side of the aisle to oppose it. While a few Democrats broke ranks, the Republican attempts were met with consistent opposition among Democrats in the Senate, where the bills inevitably ran up against the filibuster.
Off the Hill, TSA agents and other DHS workers who aren’t considered law enforcement personnel worked for weeks without pay, until Trump directed DHS to temporarily cover their paychecks last month.
Since the funding lapse began, more than 1,100 agents have quit at TSA and some homeland security efforts have been halted, including preparations for the World Cup soccer games being hosted in U.S. cities this summer.
|
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
The Republicans know ICE and BP core funding are funded through FY 29.
If they need more for paper pushers they can cut staff or give them extra work.
Consider the source
Okay, what absolutely horrible, Freedom-destroying amendments did the demoncraps and derpstate RINOs slip into this bill in the dead of night to get it to pass?
Really surprised they finally caved. I figured this would last until the election.
ICE is overspending its budget, apparently.
If it were the Republicans who were responsible for not funding DHS, the media would have had stories every day pointing out how Republican actions were making Americans less safe.
It took a voice vote to do it.
Apparently, is a Connecticut House Democrat bill that Johnson had refused to push through.
ICE & Border Patrol will have to wait for reconciliation funding.
“You don’t dump things on the other chamber in the middle of the night without talking to the speaker about it,” House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told reporters this week. “This is created by bad management in Senate leadership and by not being transparent and open with us in the House.”
That’s the devliry of that abject idiot John Thune.
He’s gotta be run outta town, and the rest of the RINO Dems with him.
policy disagreements = Democrat hissy-fits.
Would rather they had passed the SAVE Act..
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.