WASHINGTON (Gray DC) – The House of Representatives passed a short-term funding bill late Friday night to end the partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security; but senators call it “dead on arrival” to the Upper Chamber as lawmakers leave for a two-week holiday recess.
Just before midnight, House Republicans pushed through their solution to the partial government shutdown, now stretching well past 40 days. In a 213 to 203 vote, a short-term continuing resolution was sent to the Senate to fund all of DHS at current levels through May 22nd.
The passage came almost 24 hours after the Senate forwarded its own proposal — a unanimous deal to fund most of DHS minus ICE and Border Protection.
House Speaker Mike Johnson railed against the Senate agreement, saying those two agencies can’t be excluded.
“This gambit that was done last night is a joke. I’m quite convinced that it can’t be that every Senate Republican read the language of this bill,” Johnson said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in an official statement called the House proposal “dead on arrival” in the upper chamber as Democrats continue to block any funding proposal including ICE and CBP that doesn’t also include reform.
While lawmakers continue to debate, staffing issues at airports have caused widespread flight delays and TSA lines stretching for hours.
President Trump signed an order Friday directing DHS to pay TSA workers with money from his “Big, Beautiful Bill.” Those workers have gone without a paycheck for weeks, leading to massive call outs and officers quitting. That money could arrive as early as Monday, according to DHS.
However, the directive does not solve the issue of funding DHS – which ran out of funds February 14th.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he will not bring back members from their two-week recess early to vote on the continuing resolution, guaranteeing the shutdown will continue at least that long.
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