Trump signs bill funding the Department of Homeland Security, ending
record shutdown
[May 01, 2026]
By LISA MASCARO
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump swiftly signed a bipartisan
legislation Thursday to fund much of the Department of Homeland
Security, but not its immigration enforcement operations, shortly after
the package won final approval in the House, ending the longest agency
shutdown in history.
The quick action after weeks of political blame brought an abrupt end to
the months-long standoff that began after Trump’s deadly immigration
crackdown in Minneapolis launched a reckoning on Capitol Hill over the
funding for the president’s agenda.
DHS has been without routine funds since Feb. 14, causing hardship for
workers, though many of the immigration enforcement operations were able
to keep running with separate funding sources. The White House had
warned that temporary funding Trump had tapped to pay Transportation
Security Administration and other agency personnel would “soon run out.”
Some employees risked missed paychecks in May.
“It is about damn time,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top
Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, who proposed the
bipartisan bill more than 70 days ago.
The House swiftly voted by voice earlier Thursday, without a formal roll
call, to pass the measure.
The movement in Congress comes as DHS is under intense scrutiny after
Trump ousted Kristi Noem as the department's leader, installing Oklahoma
Sen. Markwayne Mullin in the middle of the shutdown. The agency counts
some 260,000 employees, across TSA, the Coast Guard, FEMA and other
operations.
Many workers have endured repeated turmoil with potential furloughs and
pay lapses as the congressional stalemate dragged on. This shutdown came
on the heels of last year's governmentwide closure, which itself had set
a record at 43 days. Countless employees have struggled with bills or
simply quit their jobs.
Trump's deportation strategy fueled the dispute
In the aftermath of the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti,
both U.S. citizens, by federal agents during protests against the
immigration actions in Minneapolis, Democrats refused to fund U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol without
changes to those operations.
At the same time, Republicans would not go along with a plan pushed by
Democrats to fund TSA and the other parts of DHS without the money for
ICE and Border Patrol. They insisted that immigration operations must
not be zeroed out.
After the shutdown intensified, with hourslong lines at airport security
screening, the Senate unanimously approved the bipartisan package
without the immigration-related funds in a middle-of-the-night vote a
month ago. Then the bill languished in the House.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., himself had called the legislation a
“joke.”
To break the impasse, Republican leaders in both the House and Senate
decided to tackle the immigration enforcement funding on their own
through what is called budget reconciliation, a cumbersome weekslong
process ahead.
By beginning that path with a separate vote late Wednesday night,
adopting a GOP budget resolution to eventually provide $70 billion for
immigration and deportation operations for the remainder of Trump's term
in 2029, Johnson was able to unlock the broader bipartisan bill for the
rest of DHS.
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The Department of Homeland Security logo during a news conference in
Washington, Feb. 25, 2015. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
Johnson acknowledged Thursday that while he had trashed the
bipartisan bill before, the new budget process ensure that the
immigration enforcement money eventually will flow “with no crazy
Democrat reforms.”
“We threw a fit,” the speaker said. “We had to.”
But not all Republicans were pleased. During the quick floor action
Thursday, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas said isolating the
immigration-related money on a separate track is “offensive to the
men and women who serve in ICE and Border Patrol, and are serving
this country every single day.”
White House warned paychecks were at risk, again
The White House had urged Congress this week to act, warning that
the money Trump tapped to temporarily pay TSA and other workers
through executive actions was drying up.
Immigration enforcement workers have largely been paid through the
flush of new cash — some $170 billion — that Congress approved as
part of Trump’s tax cuts bill last year. Others, including at the
TSA, have had to rely on Trump’s intervention through executive
action to ensure their paychecks. Most of its employees are
considered essential and have remained on the job.
But with salaries topping a combined $1.6 billion every two weeks,
Mullin said recently that the money was dwindling.
On Thursday, he said in a social media post that the shutdown "NEVER
should have happened."
More than 1,000 TSA officers have quit since the shutdown began,
according to Airlines for America, the U.S. airlines trade group
that on Wednesday called on Congress to fully fund the Cabinet
department.
Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of
Government Employees, said while workers are "pleased that Congress
finally stepped up to do their jobs and fund DHS, it is unacceptable
that it took them this long to do so.”
He said "federal employees are not political pawns. They are not
leverage. They are Americans -– and they deserve to be treated with
dignity and respect.”
Complicated budget strategy ahead
The go-it-alone strategy under the budget resolution process is the
same that was used last year to approve Trump’s tax cuts bill, which
all Democrats opposed.
With the budget resolution now adopted by the House and Senate,
lawmakers will next draft the actual $70 billion ICE and Border
Patrol funding bill, with voting expected in May.
Trump has said he wants it on his desk by June 1.
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Associated Press writer Rio Yamat in Las Vegas contributed to this
report.
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