WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security will finally receive most of its funding again after the longest lapse in US history, following a House vote Thursday.
The House approved by voice vote the funding measure to reopen most DHS agencies, except those overseeing federal immigration enforcement, 75 days after Democrats blocked the spending.
The US Coast Guard, Secret Service, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Transportation Security Administration will all get full funding once President Trump signs the measure.
TSA employees had to forgo pay stubs for weeks as a result, and many began calling out of work — causing lengthy lines at airports nationwide — before President Trump authorized funding via executive order.
On Tuesday, the Office of Management and Budget also warned lawmakers on Capitol Hill that emergency funding for DHS would dry up in May.
“My payroll through DHS is just over $1.6 billion every two weeks, so the money is going extremely fast, and once that happens, there is no emergency funds after that,” Mullin also told “Fox & Friends” last week.
“I’ve got one payroll left, and there is no more emergency funds, so the president can’t do another executive order because there’s no more money there.”
Renewed interest in fully funding the Secret Service followed the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting on April 25, which the president, vice president and several Cabinet officials attended.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as Customs and Border Protection, are expected to be funded through a separate budget resolution bill at a later date.
Senate Democrats kept the initial funding bill from clearing the 60-vote filibuster in protest of the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
The 37-year-olds were both shot by federal immigration agents. Good accelerated her car toward an ICE agent, and Pretti was armed with a Sig Sauer pistol when he got into a scuffle with CBP officers.
Congressional Democrats demanded that any funding of DHS should be premised on federal immigration authorities being forced to go maskless and have clear identification.
They also requested the use of judicial warrants for arrests.
The Senate first passed the bill by unanimous consent in the early hours of March 27 — but House Republicans then blocked it for failing to fully fund border security.
“It was haphazardly drafted,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Monday, insisting that “a modified version” being drafted would not “orphan two of the primary agencies of DHS.”
That version never passed, and instead, the lower chamber moved on a Senate-passed budget blueprint to provide ICE and CBP with more than $70 billion in funding on Wednesday.
Trump has demanded passage of the reconciliation package, which only requires a simple majority in both chambers, by June 1.
Some budget hawks in the GOP conference have balked that the blueprint didn’t include more spending cuts.
The House will now head into recess until May 12. The Senate returns on May 11.
