WASHINGTON (Gray DC) – The U.S. is roughly two months into the Department of Homeland Security shutdown. This week, lawmakers are returning from their Easter and Passover recess to continue the funding fight.
Republican congressional leaders have agreed to a two-part plan. Part one would pass a bipartisan spending bill to fund most of DHS, excluding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol. That measure is now in the House after passing the Senate unanimously.
Part two hinges on budget reconciliation to fund those other two agencies — a process that passes budgetary measures using a simple majority, avoiding both a filibuster in the Senate and the ICE and Border Patrol reforms that Democrats are demanding.
Reconciliation follows strict rules and guidelines, with the condition that everything in the bill be revenue-impacting or be thrown out. Republicans used the process in 2025 to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which in part already funded ICE and Border Patrol operations, allowing them to continue operating during the shutdown.
President Donald Trump met with Senate Republican Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the number two Senate Republican, and Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) at the White House Friday, giving them a June 1 deadline to get something on his desk.
Democrats have opposed the idea from the beginning.
“Republicans would rather unleash ice brutality and drop bombs by spending billions of dollars a day in the Middle East than actually make life more affordable for the American people,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said March 27.
With reconciliation, Republicans won’t need Democrats if they can get their party on board in both chambers — not an easy feat with such a slim majority.
Not all members are giving the green light. Some rank-and-file House Republicans have pushed to throw out the two-step plan and instead use one reconciliation bill to fund all of DHS.
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