Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) speaks to members of the media outside the Senate chamber after unanimously passing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill at the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC on April 2, 2026.
Andrew Harnik | getty images
The Senate on Thursday advanced a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security, including the Transportation Security Administration, taking a step toward ending the shutdown that disrupted air travel for much of the last month.
The legislation passed in a pro forma session — a brief meeting of either house of Congress where legislative work typically does not occur — because lawmakers are out of town on a two-week recess.
The House, which met in its own pro forma session later Thursday morning, took no action, meaning the partial government shutdown could extend into the weekend. The House is next scheduled to meet in a pro forma session on April 6, and neither House is scheduled to return in full until the week of April 13, after a two-week recess.
Democrats have refused to fund DHS since February unless changes are made to its immigration enforcement practices. In January, federal agents killed two US citizens in Minneapolis as part of a federal immigration surge, sparking months of negotiations over the future of the agency.
Meanwhile, pressure on lawmakers to reach a deal has increased as unpaid TSA agents walked off the job and walked off the job in droves, leading to long security lines at airports.
The Senate bill introduced Thursday would defund DHS except for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and parts of Customs and Border Protection, although both of those sub-agencies have funding available from the 2025 Republican tax and spending package.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R.S.D. and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. A day after the U.S. government pushed the bill forward, they announced they had reached a two-track agreement to fund DHS. Johnson and the House GOP initially rejected the Senate’s approach, with the speaker last week calling it “a joke.”
By Wednesday, Johnson had changed his tune.
“Following this two-track approach, the Republican Congress will fully reopen the department, ensure all federal employees are paid, and specifically fund immigration enforcement and border security for the next three years so that law-enforcement activities can continue uninterrupted,” Johnson and Thune said in a joint statement announcing the agreement.
That includes the appropriations bill passed by the Senate on Thursday, as well as an effort at budget reconciliation — a method of passing budget and spending priorities that requires a simple majority in the Senate, rather than the 60 typically needed to overcome a filibuster.
Republicans will aim to fund ICE and CBP through the reconciliation bill, which President Donald Trump has requested, be on his desk by June 1.
“(W)e are moving forward to defund our incredible ICE agents and Border Patrol through a process that does not require radical left Democrat votes, and bypassing the Senate filibuster (which should be repealed immediately!), working closely with House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Leader John Thune,” Trump posted on Wednesday. true social. “We are going to work as fast and focused as possible to defund our border and ICE agents, and the radical left Democrats will not stop us.”
Although Trump and Republican congressional leaders have supported a two-part approach to funding DHS, the far-right wing of the House GOP opposes any legislation that excludes funding for ICE and CBP and could block passage.
“Let’s make it simple: Bowing to the Democrats and not paying CBP and ICE is agreeing to thwart law enforcement and leave our borders open again. If that’s the vote, I’m not in,” said Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa. Posted on x On Wednesday.