Overview
- The Senate, which advanced the bill Thursday in a brief pro forma session, approved funding for most of Homeland Security but left out Immigration and Customs Enforcement and parts of Border Patrol.
- Republican leaders Mike Johnson and John Thune unveiled a two-track strategy Wednesday that funds core DHS operations now and pursues ICE and Border Patrol money through a party-line budget process, which President Trump urged to finish by June 1.
- The House did not act during its Thursday pro forma session and remains on recess, and resistance from hard-line Republicans who oppose excluding ICE and Border Patrol could slow passage.
- Airport security strains have eased after Trump authorized back pay for TSA and later extended temporary pay to all DHS workers, yet thousands had worked without pay during the record shutdown and some staff quit or called out.
- Democrats refused new ICE and Border Patrol money without tighter rules such as judicial warrants and bans on masked operations after two fatal enforcement shootings in Minneapolis, but those constraints are not in the current bill and the outcome of the separate reconciliation push is uncertain.