Plans to fund the Department of Homeland Security hit a new snag Monday as House Speaker Mike Johnson said his conference will propose a new version of a bill to sustain most of the agency, likely extending its shutdown.
Republicans in Congress had agreed upon a complicated plan to reopen the agency that has gone without new federal funding since Feb. 14. Republicans would use reconciliation to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, both housed within DHS, without Democrats’ help.
Then they would finalize a bipartisan bill that’s already passed the Senate to fund the rest of the agency, which includes the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard and the Secret Service, among other entities.
But Johnson told reporters Monday that House Republicans may try to change that bill, arguing it has “problematic language” that would “orphan” immigration operations within the department.
“We have to make sure that immigration law is enforced and the border is safe and secure,” he said, adding that his conference would offer “a modified version that I think is going to be much better for both chambers.”
House Republican leaders have previously raised concerns that the bill would zero out funding for ICE and CPB, but it’s the first time the speaker has said that they may not take up the Senate’s bill since Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) said earlier this month that they would fund the rest of the department through appropriations.
That statement did not specify that the House would pass the Senate-approved bill. However, Thune reportedly said last week that it was his and the White House’s understanding that they would.
A new version of the legislation would have to be voted on in the Senate again before it could become law.
The shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner Saturday has accelerated the push to end the shutdown, which has become the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history, lasting more than 10 weeks.
Employees of the U.S. Secret Service, along with other parts of DHS, have been paid using funds from the Republican tax and spending law passed last year. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said those emergency funds have been spent down at a rate of $1.7 billion every two weeks and will run dry at the end of the month.
On Monday, President Donald Trump urged lawmakers to support the blueprint for the reconciliation bill to fund ICE and CBP, which the House is expected to take up this week.
“We need all Republicans to join together and support this Budget Blueprint, which will allow us to bypass Democrat obstruction in the Senate, and fund Immigration Enforcement with only Republican Votes,” he wrote on social media.
Thune told reporters Monday that the shooting “intensifies the need to take action to ensure that law enforcement is funded.”
The shutdown has stretched on due to a standoff between congressional Republicans and Democrats over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics.
Democrats demanded new restrictions on federal immigration operations after agents killed Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January. They included a ban on agents wearing masks and rules to prevent them from entering private property without judicial warrants. Republicans and Democrats negotiated for weeks without reaching a deal.
Democrats have argued that the administration already has enough money to fund ICE and Border Patrol without additional appropriations. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act appropriated nearly $140 billion to ICE and Customs and Border Protection, which houses Border Patrol. Of that money, $63.2 billion remained for ICE and $40 billion remained for CBP at the end of March, according to Senate Budget Committee Democratic staffers.
Theodoric Meyer contributed reporting.
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