On Friday, the United States House of Representatives passed a temporary funding bill with a vote of 213 to 203, aimed at providing funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for a period of 60 days. The DHS has been partially shut down for 42 days, which is on track to become the longest government funding interruption in U.S. history.
The bill, introduced by House Speaker Mike Johnson, seeks to provide comprehensive funding, including for immigration enforcement, as opposed to the alternative proposal passed earlier by the Senate which excluded funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
While the bill was approved in the House, it faces strong opposition in the Senate.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer explicitly stated that the bill would be “dead on arrival” in the Senate because of the Democrats’ refusal to provide a “blank check” for immigration enforcement without reforms.
Amid the congressional deadlock, President Trump signed an executive order on Friday, expecting to start issuing pay to Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees as early as March 30.
Since the mid-February shutdown began, TSA workers have been working without pay, leading to nearly 500 resignations and thousands taking sick leave due to financial pressures, resulting in hours-long queues at security checkpoints in airports nationwide. Currently, ICE and the Border Patrol are relying on funding from last year’s “Big and Beautiful Act” to continue operations.
Trump emphasized in the executive order, “If congressional Democrats do not take action to recognize the service of our TSA workers who are currently carrying out critical public safety duties without knowing whether they can buy food or pay rent for their families, then my administration will take action.”
He later added in an interview with Fox News, “In my view, you cannot pass a bill that does not provide funding for ICE.”
Trump stressed, “A bill that does not fund any form of law enforcement activities cannot pass.”
The House vote showed a high degree of partisan division, with only three moderate Democrats casting supporting votes. Speaker Johnson expressed dissatisfaction with the Senate’s previous actions.
“That operation last night was just a joke,” he told reporters on Friday afternoon, “I am pretty sure not every Republican senator has read the text of this bill.”
However, with the Senate now on a two-week recess and top Democrats like Schumer insisting on reforms for ICE, the possibility of an agreement between the two chambers in the short term is slim.
To expedite before the recess, House leadership used the “deem and pass” procedure to streamline the voting process. This practice allows a bill to be automatically deemed passed by the House after the procedural rules have been approved.
This means that after an hour of debate and a vote on procedural rules, there will be no separate vote on the funding bill itself; it will be considered passed directly.
While House Republicans believe this demonstrates a willingness to fund the government, there are also concerns within Senate Republicans that this will only prolong the shutdown. With Trump’s executive order alleviating the pay issue for TSA workers, the pressure of airport chaos on the public may decrease, but it could also reduce the urgency for the two parties in Congress to reach a final budget agreement.