NEWNow you can listen to Fox News articles!
The 48-day shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security is one step closer to ending after the Senate moved to support the department’s majority Thursday morning.
The Senate agreed on a voice vote to send a bipartisan deal that funds every department except for President Donald Trump’s immigration and border security efforts to the House for consideration.
The chamber is not expected to vote on the legislation until House lawmakers return to Washington on April 13.
The Senate vote follows GOP leaders approving a two-track approach to funding DHS on Wednesday, when President Donald Trump gave lawmakers a deadline to end a record funding shortfall.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is expected to take up the Senate’s DHS bill after vetoing it last week. (Getty Images)
HOUSE CONSERVATIVES CONTINUE AGAINST SENATE DHS SHUTDOWN DEAL
The Senate bill accomplishes the first phase of the plan by working with Democrats to jointly fund as much of DHS as possible. However, it would defund ICE and most of the Border Patrol, saving $11 billion in funding for the agency. Additionally, the $10 billion covered by ICE will not be funded under the measure.
As for ICE and the Border Patrol, Republicans have said they will seek three full years of funding for both agencies in the party’s budget reconciliation package that will overcome opposition from Democrats. Trump says he wants the bill to come to his desk on June 1.
“We will work as fast, and focused, as possible to fill funding for our Border and ICE Agents, and the Radical Left Democrats will not be able to stop us,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday.
The passage of the Senate bill Thursday was a déjà vu moment for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, RS.D., who helped steer a similar path through the upper chamber last week.
But House GOP leadership strongly rejected it, calling the proposed ICE and CBP funding a “bad sandwich” and warning of the dangers of funding those agencies using the budget reconciliation process. The chamber then tabled a proposal by rival Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., who made it clear that it was “dead on arrival” in the Senate.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., appeared to back down Wednesday after Trump issued a statement announcing the end of the shutdown that appeared to be in line with Thune’s bipartisan approach to funding the department.
President Donald Trump appeared to side with Senate Majority Leader John Thune on defunding the Department of Homeland Security and ending the record-breaking shutdown. (Maxine Wallace/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
GOP INFIGHTING, UNMADE DEMOCRATIC DEMANDS AND A GOOD REVOLUTION: WHO WON AND WON THE DHS SHUTDOWN
As the DHS shutdown continues, Trump and Republicans in Congress are betting that budget reconciliation will be the way to fund immigration enforcement for several years to come. Some Republicans have floated funding for ICE not just during the Trump era, but for up to a decade.
The GOP used a similar process to fund ICE last year, including $75 billion to strengthen operations for the next four fiscal years.
But the party process comes with a host of challenges that could test Republican unity in an election year.
GOP lawmakers will have to identify spending cuts to pay for it. While Republicans are working through the process of passing Trump’s Good Health Bill in July 2025, lawmakers have nearly stumbled over the deadlock over the cuts to Medicaid spending and food assistance programs.
Despite a looming deadline like the expiration of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts that Republicans extended in July 2025 with a “big, good bill,” some GOP lawmakers have expressed concern that the party will remain united.
Republicans have proposed adding other issues to the reconciliation package, including more funding for the Iran war, affordability measures, the president’s tax regime and pieces of the SAVE America Act that focus on election integrity.
The budget reconciliation process allows the party in charge of the White House and both chambers of Congress to pass tax and spending priorities with a light margin, although the process is governed by strict requirements for what qualifies.
Including ICE and CBP money in a future spending bill could also have a negative impact on support workers employed by both agencies who have not been paid during the seven-week shutdown.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he won Wednesday by forcing Republicans to fund President Donald Trump’s security and immigration enforcement agenda without the normal appropriations process. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS PROGRAM
Democrats have repeatedly blocked funding for ICE and the Border Patrol in the Senate since the shutdown began in mid-February. Although none of their immigration reform proposals have been adopted, Democratic leaders claimed victory on Wednesday.
“Throughout this fight, Senate Democrats have not budged,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Wednesday. “We were clear from the start: fund security priorities, protect the American people, and there is no blank check for ICE and Border Patrol abuses. “We were united, we held the line, and we refused to let Republican anarchy win.”
A Senate deal that funds most of DHS could still face roadblocks in the House. A number of conservatives have already said they will vote “no” while using the same messaging the House GOP leadership used to oppose the bill last week.
“Let’s make this simple: focus on Democrats and not pay CBP and ICE agree to defund Law Enforcement and leave our borders open again,” said Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., wrote on social media Wednesday. “If that’s a vote, I’m NO.”
