OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
8:21 AM – Thursday, April 30, 2026
Republican members of the United States House of Representatives have passed a Senate-approved bill to fund federal immigration enforcement agencies through the rest of President Donald Trump’s term.
On Wednesday, lawmakers voted 215-211 along party lines in a step toward ending the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding lapse that began on February 14th, a partial shutdown that has passed last year’s 43-day full government shutdown to become the longest in U.S. history.
The House’s passage of the Senate’s budget framework opens up the partisan budget reconciliation process, which Republicans can use to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) without support from congressional Democrats. Now, the GOP may begin its sprint to create a funding deal to provide up to $70 billion for the two agencies.
President Trump gave the GOP a June 1st deadline to have a budget reconciliation bill on his desk.
“We have a real sense of urgency about getting this done,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told Fox News on Wednesday, in light of the president’s demand.
To accomplish this urgent goal, Republicans kept the vote open for more than five hours to sway holdouts, including six who voted “no” before siding with their party with “yes” votes.
These legislators included Representatives Max Miller (R-Ohio), Andy Harris (R-Md.), Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.), Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.), Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), and Michael Cloud (R-Texas).
Many House Republicans want to see ICE and CBP funded before the rest of the department, which could create weeks of delays.
“I think that there’s a serious problem with the bill in that it zeroes out, ICE and CBP,” Representativde Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) said. “It’s one thing to not do the funding, but it’s a whole other thing to put zeros in the bill.”
The reconciliation will also allow the Senate to push forward more direct budget legislation with a simple majority instead of the usual 60-vote threshold, creating a pathway for the GOP in spite of vehement Democrat opposition.
“We have been forced by the Democrats to use the reconciliation process to ensure that these two important agencies are funded,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said last week.
Meanwhile, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) warned in a memorandum on Tuesday that funding for the department will be short next month.
“If this funding is exhausted, the Administration will be unable to pay DHS personnel beginning in May, which will once again unleash havoc on air travel, leave critical law enforcement officers—including our brave Secret Service agents—and the Coast Guard without paychecks, and jeopardize national security,” the White House stated.
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