Congressional Republicans announced a path forward Thursday to end the record-setting Department of Homeland Security shutdown, with the Senate unanimously passing a bipartisan bill to fund most of the agency while leaving Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol operations unfunded until later this spring.
The Senate on Thursday morning sent its plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security — excluding ICE and CBP— back to the House for consideration.
Once that happens, the record DHS shutdown, now in its seventh week, will end. The House is expected to take up the measure when lawmakers return from a two-week recess on April 13.
The breakthrough came after House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune announced a two-track approach Wednesday to fully fund the sprawling department that employs more than 260,000 people. 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 using budget reconciliation procedures that would bypass Democratic opposition. Mr. Trump says he wants that bill on his desk no later than June 1.
The partial government shutdown began February 14 after federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis as part of a federal immigration crackdown. Democrats demanded changes in ICE and DHS more broadly and refused to fund the department. The Minneapolis incidents — the killing of Renee Good on January 7 and Alex Pretti on January 24 — sparked nationwide protests and congressional calls for immigration enforcement reforms.
Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old American intensive care nurse for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, was shot multiple times and killed by two United States Customs and Border Protection officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The incident occurred amid widespread protests against Operation Metro Surge, especially following the killing of Renée Good on January 7 by a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.
The shutdown has crippled airport security operations nationwide, with Transportation Security Administration agents working without pay for weeks. McNeill said the TSA has already lost more than 480 transportation security officers during this shutdown, while callout rates have accelerated. At some airports, 40 to 50% of their workforce is calling out of work on certain days, she said. “This has led to the highest wait times in TSA history, with some wait times greater than four and a half hours,” McNeill said.
President Trump signed a presidential memorandum March 27 directing TSA workers be paid despite the shutdown. The memo directs Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought to use funds “that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations” to pay those workers. “If Democrats in the Congress will not act to honor the service of our TSA officers, who are now performing their critical public safety responsibilities without knowing whether they will be able to buy food for their families or pay their rent, then my Administration will take action,” the directive states.
The funding impasse has exposed deep divisions within the Republican Party. Last week, House Republicans voted Friday night to effectively jam the Senate with their plan, fully funding DHS for eight weeks – including with border and immigration money that the prior deal left out. Johnson initially rejected the Senate’s bipartisan compromise, calling it “a joke.”
However, pressure from Trump and airport chaos forced Republican leaders to reconsider. Republican leaders announced Wednesday that the House is now on track to pass the Senate deal and end the shutdown. Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said in a statement that they plan to fund ICE and CBP through reconciliation, a budget process that only requires Republican support.
The agencies excluded from immediate funding — ICE and Border Patrol — have continued operating during the shutdown thanks to separate funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Trump’s massive tax and spending package signed in 2025. The agencies not funded under the bill — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the border patrol functions of Customs and Border Protection — have been operating mostly as normal using a separate stream of funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Based on OMB apportionment data through February 2026, the administration has released $113.9 billion in OBBBA funds for DHS to spend—$12 billion in FY2025 (OBBBA was enacted on July 4, 2025) and $101.9 billion in FY2026. As of February, ICE and CBP were apportioned $33 billion and $56 billion, respectively.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer claimed victory for Democrats, saying they successfully blocked unrestricted funding for immigration enforcement. “In the wake of the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Senate Democrats were clear. No blank check for a lawless ICE and Border Patrol.”