The House approved funding measures to exempt ICE, ending a weeks-long crisis that left many federal workers without pay.
Published April 30, 2026
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a Senate-approved bill to restore funding to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and sent the bill to President Donald Trump’s desk.
The bill, which does not include Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Protection (CBP), was adopted by voice vote Thursday, paving the way for an end to an 11-week partial government shutdown.
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Both agencies are well-funded through previously approved legislation, but Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson initially opposed measures that would exclude them.
However, President Trump expressed support for the proposal, which ultimately brought it to a vote.
The partial shutdown has left several departments within DHS operating on exhaust fumes, long lines have formed at airports, and many Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees are reported to be working without pay.
The closure also has raised concerns about the potential for disruption to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which responds to natural disasters and is part of DHS.
“This is welcome news,” Democratic Representative Zoe Lofgren said of the bill’s passage.
“We’re happy to now be able to fund law enforcement agencies within DHS like TSA and FEMA. Now Congress needs to work to rein in ICE and CBP and hold them to the same standards that every police officer in America is held to.”
The impasse was spurred in part by a federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota that resulted in the killing of two Americans in January.
On February 4, Democratic leaders in Congress released a list of demands for ICE reform.
Conditions included prohibiting ICE officers from wearing masks to conceal their identities, prohibiting racial profiling, and halting immigration raids in “sensitive locations” such as schools and churches.
Without such “common sense reforms,” Democrats threatened to withhold a vote on the DHS funding bill.
Republicans rejected the Democratic demands as unreasonable.
Republicans control both the Senate and the House of Representatives. But a Senate legislative rule known as the filibuster requires lawmakers to reach a 60-vote threshold to pass major legislation.
The DHS shutdown began on February 14th.
The Senate passed a compromise DHS funding bill in March that excluded ICE, but Johnson held up the proposal for more than a month.
Republican senators are currently trying to secure funding for ICE and DHS through a complex budget process called reconciliation that can overcome a filibuster.
President Trump has called on his party to eliminate the filibuster altogether, a dangerous ploy that could pay dividends if Democrats regain the Senate majority.
The U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to approve and allocate budgets for the federal government. When lawmakers fail to pass a budget, funding is lost and the government shuts down, often leading to service interruptions and employees going without pay.
In recent years, both Republicans and Democrats have used government funding and government shutdowns as pressure tools to extract concessions from opposition parties.
