The House passed a two-month-long funding patch for the Department of Homeland Security late Friday night after Republican leadership rejected a funding deal the Senate sent over earlier in the day. But the DHS shutdown will continue, as the Senate has already skipped town for a two-week recess.
House Republican Conference Chair Lisa McClain told NOTUS Friday morning that the deal the Senate sent over Friday is “garbage” and that the House will not be voting on it.
House Speaker Mike Johnson announced the plans Friday afternoon to instead put the 60-day continuing resolution, or “CR,” on the floor that would fund all of DHS including ICE, at current levels.
President Donald Trump on Friday afternoon directed that TSA employees be paid using “funds that have a reasonable and logical nexus,” he said in a memo after declaring that circumstances at the TSA “constitute an emergency situation compromising the Nation’s security.” The memo also says missed paychecks would be covered by DHS. House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole said he doesn’t know where that money is coming from, but he’s seen the president “pull a rabbit out of a hat” before.
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Moments before the announcement dropped, Johnson, at a news conference, doubled down on the House’s rejection of the Senate’s plan, saying he had spoken to Trump “a few moments ago” and that Trump supported the plan.
“He understands exactly what we’re doing and why,” Johnson said of the president, adding as he left the conference that a vote on the plan would happen “as soon as possible.”
Majority Whip Tom Emmer told members on the call with Republicans that President Donald Trump has given them the “go-ahead” to pursue this plan, according to two sources who participated on the call.
A handful of members on the conference call spoke out against this plan — including Rep. Carlos Giménez, who said that House Republicans would have to “own the shutdown” if they go forward with the plan, sources said.
This rejection of the Senate bill from House Republicans follows more than 40 days of gridlock in the Senate over Democrats refusing to fund the department without codifying reforms to immigration agencies — specifically Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It’s a battle that came to a head in the early morning hours on Friday when the Senate unanimously passed DHS funding, minus ICE and parts of Customs and Border Protection. Democrats’ many demands to change immigration enforcement policy did not make it into the bill.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said the House will work through the differences on the DHS funding bill.
“We’ve been consistent all along in the House that we want to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security,” Scalise said. “It’s why we passed a bill yesterday to do that. The Senate passed a different bill yesterday to fall short of that, so we have differences, and we’re still working through how to resolve our differences.”
“What the Senate sent over was a terrible deal, made all the more insulting by the fact that they immediately skipped town to start their vacations early,” Rep. Brandon Gill told NOTUS in a text message.
The House Freedom Caucus was quick to trash the Senate’s offer Friday morning in a gaggle outside the House chamber — specifically opposing parts of it they say would not fund the division of ICE that investigates child sex trafficking.
“It is absolutely offensive to the people that we represent that the Senate could send over a bill that doesn’t fund border control and the core components of ICE,” Rep. Chip Roy said.
“I mean, could the Senate be any more lazy than to send to us a bill that doesn’t do the job and then leave town? So, we’re going to stand up and say no to that, we’re going to send back a bill that’s responsible,” Roy added.
Rep. Byron Donalds, another HFC member, was on the same page, calling the Senate deal “nuts.”
“If the Senators got to get back on their private jets to come back to D.C., so be it. Because by the way, America, most senators don’t go through TSA. They get on a PJ,” he said.
Amid congestion at airports and loss of staff and missed paychecks at the Transportation Security Administration, many House Democrats, including Reps. Becca Balint, Nanette Barragan, Gil Cisneros and Greg Landsman were prepared to vote for the deal.
“Hopefully, it’s just noise,” Barragan told NOTUS of Republicans’ opposition in a text message. “I can’t vote for ICE funding since they are out of control.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Friday that House and Senate Democrats are aligned in supporting the deal and put blame on the GOP for the continued shutdown of DHS.
The shutdown has lasted more than 40 days and the House and Senate are not expected to resolve the standoff until next month.
This story was updated with new information.
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