House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune announced a plan Wednesday to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security, moving past a split between the two Republican leaders that resulted in Congress leaving Washington last week without a fix to a record-setting partial government shutdown.
The DHS funding lapse began Feb. 14, 2026, and we are now 51 days into the longest government shutdown in history, surpassing the 2025 full federal government shutdown of 43 days.
It’s Day 51 for those keeping track, the longest agency shutdown in U.S. history.
The agreement comes after President Trump intervened Wednesday morning, posting on Truth Social his support for a two-track approach that would fund most DHS operations through regular appropriations while routing Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through budget reconciliation for the next three years.
“We are going forward to fund our incredible ICE Agents and Border Patrol through a process that doesn’t need Radical Left Democrat votes, and bypasses the Senate Filibuster (which should be repealed, IMMEDIATELY!), working in close conjunction with House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Leader John Thune,” he wrote in a lengthy post.
Trump set a June 1 deadline for Congress to send him the bill.
They said in a joint statement that “in the coming days” Republicans in Congress will pursue a two-track approach. The first track returns to the Senate plan to fund most of the department, with the exception of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol. On the second track, Republicans would try later to fund those agencies through party-line spending legislation.
The deal represents a dramatic reversal for Johnson, who last week called the Senate plan “a joke” and “alarming.” Just days after labeling the Senate deal to end the record-breaking shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security a “crap sandwich,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., appears ready to swallow it whole.
“We appreciate and share the President’s determination to once and for all bring an end to the Democrat DHS shutdown,” said Johnson, R-La., and Thune, R-S.D.
“In following this two-track approach, the Republican Congress will fully reopen the Department, make sure all federal workers are paid, and specifically fund immigration enforcement and border security for the next three years so that those law-enforcement activities can continue uninhibited,” Johnson and Thune said in a joint statement announcing the deal.
The Senate passed a bipartisan bill that would reopen most Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies, including TSA, FEMA, and Cybersecurity, but a House vote to end the government shutdown has stalled as lawmakers remain on spring recess.
The legislation passed in a pro forma session — a brief meeting of either congressional chamber where legislative business typically does not take place — as lawmakers are out of town on a two-week recess.
The shutdown has caused significant disruption to air travel and federal operations. The vast majority of Homeland Security workers continue to report to work during the shutdown, but many thousands have been going without pay. That led to more Transportation Security Administration agents calling out from work, causing frustrating security lines at some of the nation’s biggest airports.
Those bottlenecks appeared to be clearing this week as agents began receiving backpay, per an executive order from Trump.
The shutdown stems from a political battle over immigration enforcement policies following the deaths of two U.S. citizens during a federal immigration raid in Minneapolis in February. DHS has been shut down since February, after federal agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis during an immigration crackdown. Democrats had demanded policy changes to immigration enforcement before agreeing to fund ICE and Border Patrol, while Republicans insisted on full funding without conditions.
That includes the appropriations bill the Senate passed on Thursday, as well as an attempt at budget reconciliation — a method of passing budget and spending priorities that requires a simple majority in the Senate, rather than the 60 normally required to overcome a filibuster.
Republicans would then attempt to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years using a party-line budget reconciliation bill that would not require support from Democrats.
The reconciliation strategy would effectively shield border and immigration enforcement from future Democratic attempts to impose conditions on funding. A three-year funding commitment for ICE and Border Patrol through reconciliation would outlast any future continuing resolution drama and survive well into the next Congress.
However, challenges remain. Neither outcome is guaranteed, and the strategy could potentially still face opposition from the GOP’s own ranks even though President Donald Trump has given his support.
“Let’s make this simple: caving to Democrats and not paying CBP and ICE is agreeing to defund Law Enforcement and leaving our borders wide open again,” Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, wrote on X.