DHS Shutdown Resolves After 76 Days, Alleviating Airport Disruptions

After months of stalemate, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is back in operation following a funding agreement approved by Congress and supported by Donald Trump.

On Thursday, the House cast a decisive vote to finance most parts of the DHS, except for its immigration enforcement sectors. This bipartisan funding package, now heading to the President, aims to resolve the prolonged deadlock.

The vote was conducted swiftly and with little drama, a contrast to the months of heated debate surrounding the department’s budget.

Since February 14, DHS had been operating without standard funding from Congress. This followed a Democratic protest against a Republican-led bill after a severe immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota resulted in the deaths of two Americans at the hands of federal agents.

In response, Democrats insisted on changes within Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol, making these reforms a condition for their support of any funding legislation. They suggested a plan that would finance certain DHS operations while withholding funds specifically from ICE and DHS’s immigration enforcement units.

Senate Republicans passed that bill a month ago, but House Republicans refused to take it up. Republican Speaker Mike Johnson called the proposal a ‘joke’ last month, but on Thursday, his conference passed the measure. 

The shutdown impacted the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), ICE, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Coast Guard and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which all fall under the DHS umbrella.

Trump is expected to sign the bill later on Thursday, ending the 76-day financing spat. Republicans say they will fund immigration enforcement in a forthcoming bill. 

President Donald Trump signed a bill funding the majority of DHS on Thursday to end the months-long stalemate in Congress over the department’s financing

Democrats objected to a GOP-led bill in February because of its funding for ICE and Border Patrol in the wake of federal agent involved shootings in Minnesota 

The impasse also impacted TSA workers’ pay, prompting over 1,000 officers to quit, which made airport security lines unbearably long

To break the stalemate, Republicans rallied around the idea of passing immigration enforcement funding in a separate bill, which is expected to get a vote in the coming months. 

That effort will come through a budget reconciliation bill, which would need far less Democratic support. 

It is expected to include $70 billion for immigration enforcement and deportations that will help fund Trump’s sweeping crackdown on illegal immigration. 

Trump signed an order in late March to provide funding for TSA after airport lines grew so large that it would take passengers hours to get to their terminals. 

The White House warned Republicans to solve the impasse this week as money earmarked for the TSA workers was running low. 

‘DHS will soon run out of critical operating funds, placing essential personnel and operations at risk,’ the Office of Management and Budget said in a memo sent out on Tuesday. 

Over 1,000 TSA workers have quit since the shutdown began in February, according to Airlines for America.  

Most immigration enforcement functions remained funded throughout the shutdown due to a major cash infusion passed by Congress last summer as a part of Trump’s tax cut bill, dubbed ‘The One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act.’ 

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson called the bill passed on Thursday a ‘joke’ last month as he negotiated with Democrats on funding

Some immigration enforcement officials kept getting paychecks during the shutdown thanks to a $170 billion cash infusion passed in Trump’s signature tax cut bill passed last summer

Now Republicans are readying the larger reconciliation bill to provide the extra funding for immigration enforcement without Democratic support. 

The same method was used last summer to pass the Trump tax cuts without Democratic votes. 

Trump has said he wants that bill on his desk no later than June 1.