House relents, finally ends record-breaking Homeland Security shutdown
Last edited Thu Apr 30, 2026, 05:32 PM - Edit history (2)
Source: USA Today
Updated April 30, 2026, 2:13 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON ‒ Congress finally ended the historic Department of Homeland Security shutdown, resolving the longest crisis of its kind in American history. In an abrupt afternoon voice vote on Thursday, April 30, the House of Representatives passed a funding bill for the agency with seemingly unanimous support, sending it to President Donald Trump's desk.
The vote resolved a political showdown that has plagued Capitol Hill and the country for more than two months. The ordeal, which exposed fierce acrimony between House and Senate Republicans, left thousands of workers without pay, upended air travel and jeopardized Americans' safety. After the White House unilaterally shifted money to pay the agency's workers, it also likely wrought longer-term implications for Congress' authority over federal spending.
On Wednesday night, the House cleared a key hurdle by greenlighting a budget blueprint to funnel $70 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. The broader DHS funding bill doesn't include funding for immigration enforcement, which became a sticking point for GOP hardliners in the House. The Senate unanimously approved the DHS bill weeks ago, but House Speaker Mike Johnson let it sit as he worked to smooth over party infighting.
The delay frustrated lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, including Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee. "Speaker Johnson extended the DHS shutdown for over a month for no reason at all," she said in a statement. "This is the same bill the Senate unanimously passed five weeks ago."
Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/04/30/department-of-homeland-security-shutdown-ending-when/89872578007/
Mikie FINALLY CAVED.
EVERYTHING BUT ICE FUNDED.
Link to tweet
@RepRaskin
The House GOP finally caved in to reality and joined House Democrats, Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans in voting to fund the rest of DHS except for the dangerously lawless ICE and Border Patrol.
Why did Speaker Johnson make hardworking FEMA officials, TSA and Secret Service agents and other federal workers wait more than two months to receive their regular paychecks?
2:53 PM · Apr 30, 2026
= new reply since forum marked as read
On Wednesday night, the House cleared a key hurdle by greenlighting a budget blueprint to funnel $70 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.
I.e., Democrats FORCED the House to pass the "all of DHS except ICE" bill the Senate had approved over a month ago, MAKING Mike allow a vote - which was done as a "voice vote" versus a "roll call".
HE CAVED.
But note - they used UP a "spending" reconciliation option, and can't use it again for the rest of the FY for whatever other crap they were planning to do (each reconciliation type can only be used once a FY).
ETA - the House reconciliation framework still has to get through the Senate and that itself, is a whole process ( "vote-a-rama" for Amendments", etc.) and if the Senate version doesn't match, then that will delay any ICE funding until BOTH chambers agree to ONE bill.
NO.
The HOUSE (ONLY so far) has started a "2-part" (or rather, 2 separate votes) proicess.
The 1st "part" was that they FINALLY put the ORIGINAL bill passed by unanimous consent in the SENATE (that funded "everything in DHS but ICE/CBP) on the floor for a vote AND passed THAT by a "voice vote" (no roll call vote) in the House.
The 2nd "part" was that the HOUSE (ONLY) passed THEIR version of a reconciliation bill for ICE/CBP funding, BUT that is THEIR version. The Senate hasn't passed anything associated with reconciliation and ICE/CBP yet.
The SENATE will most likely take the HOUSE (reconciliation) bill and modify it with Amendments (the infamous "vote-a-rama" ) and send it BACK to the HOUSE.
IOW, you need BOTH chambers to "tango to the same song" and they are not there yet.
ETA regarding this -
The HOUSE is supposed to "originate money bills" (NOT the Senate), and that is why they are the focus. However in the vast majority of cases (at least recently) the Senate takes a House money bill (or even some other unrelated bill that came from the House) and will replace it as "An Amendment as a Substitute" with their OWN version and make the HOUSE pass that.
back in 2009 - 2010 when I was ranting and raving about the dysfunctional coverage of the ACA legislative markups and reporting.
I think at the time, there were SIX (primary) Congressional Committees (3 in each chamber), that were doing their own versions from the perspectives of the subject matter each Committee handled. Then each Committee would report out progress on what they had so far and the STUPID ASS media WENT WILD saying THIS IS "THE BILL"... and I was screaming at the TV - "NO IT IS NOT!!!!!"
Due to all those Committees and their versions, a "Joint Conference Committee" consisting of both chambers and members of both parties, had to be convened in order to combine all the versions to have ONE BILL for both chambers to vote on.
Back in 2009, Democrats actually had 60 members (including those who caucused with us like Bernie Sanders and Joe Lieberman as the (I)s) at the time AND after Arlen Specter switched parties from (R) to (D)) in the Senate. So what was being crafted was generally being done by Democrats and could get through cloture pretty easily with a straight vote (once the instigators like Max Baucus and Joe Lieberman were prodded).
But when Ted Kennedy passed away that summer of 2009, the (D)s would lose the 60 vote majority once he MA special election happened that late fall (won by a (R) to fill the rest of Ted's term), and so the "first part" of the ACA was passed just before the start of 2010 with the 60 Senate votes, but had to be later "revised" using "reconciliation" (like they are doing now with ICE" ), to complete what would be a "second part", where the full name of the final thing became the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act", and it was signed off on by Obama in March of 2010.
Some of my ranting and ravings from back then are probably captured in the DU2 archive, but it might be tricky to find with the search.