WASHINGTON — The Senate agreed unanimously early Friday to reopen the Department of Homeland Security after a 40-day shutdown, but without funding for immigration enforcement and deportation operations.
Senators approved the package at 2:20 a.m by voice vote following a marathon session, hours after President Donald Trump announced that he would sign an order to immediately pay Transportation Security Administration officers.
The funding lapse has seen them go without pay, leading many to call out of work and causing extreme delays at airports of up to four hours.
The deal followed arduous bipartisan negotiations that occurred in fits and starts over the last six weeks. It is expected to have Trump’s support but faces an uncertain future in the House.
It would fund all of DHS except ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations and parts of Customs and Border Protection, which Democrats have refused to vote for without significant reforms to enforcement practices.
Referring to the possibility of the House considering the package later Friday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D) said “hopefully they’ll be around, and we can get at least a lot of the government opened up again, and then we’ll go from there.” He said he texted with Speaker Mike Johnson tonight.
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Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer however reflected the deep divisions in Congress and said his party would keep fighting to ensure the government’s immigration enforcement program “does not get more funding without serious reform.”
Schumer added that this deal could have been done weeks ago and was “exactly what we wanted.”
The White House and Republicans declined to grant Democrats’ demands to restrict Trump’s immigration agenda, so they agreed to strip out ICE funding from the measure and pursue that in a separate party-line bill.
Democrats objected to an effort to pass that bill, blocking it from advancing.
Senate Republicans held a vote open for hours on Thursday as the two sides continued to negotiate, having traded offers for days.
Trump meanwhile announced that that he would instruct newly sworn-in Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to “immediately pay our TSA Agents in order to address this Emergency Situation.”
Trump’s backing could help corral votes in the Republican-controlled House despite some misgivings among conservatives about splitting off ICE funding.
This provision faces an uncertain future in the House.
The lower chamber can either debate and vote out the Senate-passed measures in the Rules Committee before bringing them to the floor under a simple majority vote, or Speaker Johnson can bring them to the floor “under suspension,” meaning two thirds of the House votes in favor of bringing them up.
The House was set to hold an unrelated vote at 10:00am before leaving for recess.
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