House Republicans passed a stopgap measure Friday night to fund the Department of Homeland Security after rejecting a Senate-passed spending bill that left out funding for immigration enforcement.
The move, however, is all but certain to prolong the six-week partial government shutdown.
The House measure funds all of DHS for 60 days, but is unlikely to be approved by the Senate.
The so-called clean continuing resolution cleared the lower chamber in a 213-209 vote. Three Democrats voted with Republicans in support of the measure. Sixteen members did not vote, 8 Republicans and 8 Democrats.
The Senate version – put forward by Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and approved via unanimous consent at around 3 a.m. Friday – was supported by House Democrats but denounced by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and other Republicans for the “zero” dollars for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
“This bill absolutely defunds the police,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said of the Senate bill on the House floor.
“That is not the responsible thing to do for this country,” Scalise argued.
Billions of dollars in funding for ICE and CBP were already secured last summer in President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Senate Republicans were hopeful additional funds for ICE and CBP could be passed through the reconciliation process – which would require a simple majority rather than 60 votes – in the near future.
House Republican leadership was concerned that approach would be risky.
Trump also slammed theSenate DHS bill as “not appropriate” for failing to fund ICE and Border Patrol.
“Well, it wasn’t good. It wasn’t appropriate,” the president said in an interview with Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich.
“You can’t have a bill that’s not going to fund – in my opinion, you can’t have a bill that’s not going to fund ICE. You can’t have a bill that’s not going to fund any form of law enforcement, of which ICE is a big form, and so is Border Patrol,” Trump continued.
Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) described the House GOP’s stopgap measure as “partisan political stunt … masquerading as legitimate legislation.”
“If Speaker Johnson would just put the damn bill on the floor of the House for an up or down vote we all know it would pass,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) fumed on the House floor.
More than a dozens of House lawmakers missed Friday’s vote.
Senators also skipped town Friday, beginning a two-week recess.
The House speaker noted in an interview with Fox News host Brian Kilmeade that the continuing resolution could be passed via unanimous consent in the Senate as early as Monday, during a pro forma session.
“If no one objects then it automatically happens,” Johnson explained. “They don’t even have to fly back in town to do that.”
However, the House speaker acknowledged that all it would take for the gambit to be defeated is for one senator in the chamber to object.
Senate Democrats have held up DHS funding for 42 days in protest of the ICE and Customs and Border Protection-involved fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota earlier this year.
Trump signed an executive order on Friday authorizing DHS to pay TSA workers amid the shutdown, which is expected to alleviate some of the long security lines at airports. Other DHS workers, including FEMA staffers and members of the US Coast Guard, will continue to be unpaid.
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