Angered by a bipartisan Senate plan to end a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, House Republicans countered with an eight-week funding extension that virtually ensures a continuation of the standoff. The House on Friday passed a stopgap funding bill for the department that Senate Democrats warned has no chance of winning approval in their chamber. With lawmakers fleeing town for a two-week recess, there appeared to be little prospect for bringing the 42-day partial shutdown to an end anytime soon. On a mostly party-line vote of 213-203, the House adopted a rule "deeming" the stopgap funding extension passed. That bill — which replaces the text of the Senate-passed measure — would extend funding for the entire department through May 22 and provide back pay for workers whose pay has been frozen during the shutdown. Three Democrats joined all Republicans in support of the bill: Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas, Don Davis of North Carolina and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington. The House vote put the two chambers at loggerheads over a path for ending the shutdown. Hopes for reaching a solution had briefly soared in the wee hours of Friday morning, when the Senate, on a voice vote, passed an amended bill that would provide full-year funding for all of DHS except for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and most of Customs and Border Protection — the two agencies that have been at the center of a partisan standoff over immigration enforcement practices. Senate GOP leaders had defended that measure as a way to end the shutdown without giving in to Democratic demands for new restrictions on immigration agents. They said additional funding for the two immigration agencies would come through a separate budget reconciliation bill in coming weeks that avoids the risk of a Democratic filibuster. But House Republicans immediately shot down the proposal and criticized the Senate for jamming them. Many said they could not stomach a bill that omits funding for vital agencies. "I would not vote for something, to tell you the truth, that said I was going to give zero money for border security and homeland security," House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said during a Rules Committee hearing Friday on the measure. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., meanwhile, called the Senate bill a “joke” and said he was “quite convinced that it can't be that every Senate Republican read the language of this bill.” House Democrats, however, support the Senate-passed legislation, which largely mirrors a Democratic proposal the party has been pushing for weeks. The Senate bill would “open every part of the Department of Homeland Security that actually keeps Americans secure,” said House Minority Whip Katherine M. Clark, D-Mass. “That is what the Senate passed unanimously this morning, but House Republicans refuse to take yes for an answer,” she said. The House-passed funding extension, meanwhile, was already a no-go for Senate GOP leadership, according to an aide. “It won’t pass the Senate and everyone knows it,” the aide said. “The easiest way to make a law is to adopt the Senate product.” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., also said his conference would not back the House continuing resolution. “We will not give a blank check to [President Donald] Trump’s lawless and deadly immigration militia without reforms,” he said. “A 60-day CR that locks in the status quo is dead on arrival in the Senate, and Republicans know it.” The tension between the House and the Senate was on full display at the testy Friday afternoon Rules Committee meeting that repeatedly devolved into shouting matches, with Republicans bemoaning the Senate’s actions while Democrats railed against the House GOP leadership proposal. The House has taken issue in recent months with repeated attempts from the Senate to force the chamber to fall in line on key votes for legislation. "The Senate's proposal operates on the mere hope that funding from [reconciliation] can be used for every aspect of pay and resources for our nation's border protection," Rules Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., said at the hearing. "We don't operate on hope. We operate on process, deliberation and action," she added. Future fights Ahead of the Friday night vote, the White House relieved a major shutdown pressure point at airports with a memo directing Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to pay Transportation Security Administration employees using funding from last year's budget reconciliation law. DHS said paychecks are expected to start flowing on Monday. But larger fights on federal immigration enforcement funding loom over lawmakers’ return in mid-April. The Senate’s latest DHS funding proposal notably did not include the list of changes pursued by Democrats in negotiations with the White House for weeks, although the party has contended that bipartisan discussions over potential ICE restrictions will continue. Meanwhile, a bipartisan cohort of House members led by Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., released their own proposal that includes some of Democrats’ overhauls and would also fund DHS at previously negotiated fiscal 2026 levels. But neither Republican nor Democratic leadership from either chamber has publicly supported the effort, and disagreements about policy changes proved to be the downfall of previous shutdown negotiations. Some Senate Democrats are already setting their sights on forcing consideration of their proposed immigration guardrails, including banning masks for immigration agents, if Republicans move forward with reconciliation plans to provide further immigration enforcement funding, which will guarantee marathon voting sessions on the floor. Such changes would face a tough chance getting adopted as part of Republicans’ go-it-alone package, but they could force Republicans to take difficult votes to defeat proposals that Democrats argue are popular with voters in an election year. Momentum is growing among congressional Republicans over the ambitious idea of bypassing Democrats to potentially approve significant funding for defense programs and homeland security via the reconciliation process. But there’s still skepticism in the party around the pitch. “I don't want to do something if we can't fund everything we're supposed to,” Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told reporters Friday while discussing the Senate DHS proposal that would nix immigration enforcement dollars. But he also wasn’t sold on the idea that’s especially gained steam in the Senate GOP to use reconciliation to fund ICE. “That's the talk,” he said. “But is that realistic though?” Aidan Quigley contributed to this report.
