The Department of Homeland Security is now officially funded—sans money for immigration enforcement—after House Speaker Mike Johnson caved and put the bill up for a vote on Thursday. It passed overwhelmingly.
The passage of the DHS funding bill without money for Customs and Border Protection or Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a huge win for Democrats, who for 76 days refused to back legislation that would fund President Donald Trump’s violent and lawless immigration goons.
The Senate had passed this funding bill more than a month ago, after Republicans compromised with Democrats and funded DHS’ other functions, including the Coast Guard, disaster relief, airport security, and other critical agencies.
Yet Johnson had heeded the demands of sycophantic Trump supporters in his conference and refused to vote on that bill, saying he would not “eat the crap sandwich the Senate sent us.”
However, as the shutdown dragged on, even Trump was tired of the battle. The White House on Tuesday urged Johnson to pass the Senate’s bill and end the shutdown once and for all. And of course, when Trump says “Jump,” Johnson asks “How high?”
Attribution: APFlares are seen as federal agents use tear gas to try to clear the demonstrators near a hotel in Minneapolis, in January.
To pass the funding bill, however, Johnson employed sneaky tactics to avoid the hard-liners in his conference from tanking the legislation.
On Thursday, he quietly put the funding bill on the floor for passage with a voice vote—a procedure in which lawmakers on the floor express support or opposition to a bill by saying “aye” or “nay.” No lawmakers demanded a recorded vote, and thus the funding bill quietly passed.
Reporters on Capitol Hill said many GOP lawmakers didn’t even know the bill was being put on the floor and thus could not object to its passage.
“Johnson caving is crazy but also it’s bananas to do that on voice vote after so many of his members publicly attacked the bill,” Aaron Fritschner, an aide to Virginia Democratic Rep. Don Beyer, wrote in a post on X. “A voice vote is effectively an assumption that nobody will object to passage and Members had literally no notice that they were doing that.”
In order to fund CBP and ICE, Republicans will now try to pass a funding bill through budget reconciliation—a legislative maneuver that lets bills advance in the Senate with a simple majority rather than the 60-vote threshold.
That means vulnerable Republicans will be on record supporting Trump’s violent and lawless immigration goons, which are overwhelmingly unpopular with voters.
Democrats took a victory lap.
“Republicans’ DHS shutdown is over.The House passed our bill to fund programs that actually keep people safe: TSA, FEMA, CISA, and the Coast Guard,” House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, Democrat of Massachusetts, wrote in a post on X. “For months, the GOP refused because they insisted on handing billions more to ICE and Border Patrol. Democrats will never vote for terror in our communities.”
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