The US House of Representatives has voted to fund much of the Department of Homeland Security – excluding immigration enforcement operations – and end the longest government agency shutdown in history.

The deal struck on Thursday aims to draw a line under a 75-day impasse that had threatened airport chaos and exposed fresh strains within the Republican party.

In a swift voice vote, the Republican-controlled chamber approved a bipartisan measure to fund much of the sprawling department, including the Secret Service and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). The bill now goes to Donald Trump to sign into law.

But the legislation stops short of covering key immigration enforcement arms such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), leaving the fiercest battle over Trump’s deportation agenda for another day.

The vote came after days of mounting pressure on Mike Johnson, the House speaker, whose wafer-thin majority had repeatedly failed to break the deadlock. Although the Senate had passed the package unanimously weeks ago, the bill had languished in the House as conservative Republicans demanded any funding deal be tied to a long-term plan to bankroll the White House’s immigration crackdown.

That broader strategy began to take shape on Wednesday when House Republicans pushed through a budget resolution to eventually provide $70bn for immigration enforcement though a separate process and without Democrats. The manoeuvre, approved by a 215-211 margin, opened the door for the narrower homeland security measure to proceed a day later.

The White House had sharply raised the stakes in recent days, warning that emergency funds Trump had diverted to keep frontline staff paid were close to exhaustion. In a stark memorandum to members, the office of management and budget said the department would “soon run out of critical operating funds”, placing essential personnel and national security operations at risk.

That warning rattled Washington because it came amid fears of disruption at airports. More than 1,000 TSA officers have reportedly resigned since the shutdown began in February, while airline executives warned that staffing shortages could snarl travel if Congress failed to act.

“It is about damn time,” Rosa DeLauro, the senior Democrat on the House appropriations committee, told the Associated Press after the measure finally cleared the chamber, voicing frustration that legislation introduced more than two months ago had been held hostage by Republican infighting.

Democrats had refused to support fresh money for immigration enforcement agencies without reforms to detention and deportation policies, particularly after public anger over the deaths of US citizens Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, the budget panel’s top Democrat, told the AP: “We know there are reforms that need to happen with ICE and CBP in order to rein in the abuses we have seen.”

Republicans, for their part, accused the opposition of playing politics with national security. Jodey Arrington of Texas, the chairman of the budget committee, argued that Democrats were making “ridiculous and even dangerous demands”.

Although the immediate crisis has been averted, a deeper confrontation over Trump’s hardline immigration programme – and the billions he wants to sustain it – has merely been postponed until the summer.

Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator for South Carolina, posted on the X social media platform: “I’m very grateful that the House has passed the DHS funding bill that was sent over by the Senate. This is a major step forward to secure our nation and take care of our people who take care of us. To finish the job, Senate and House Republicans must pass the reconciliation.”