President Donald Trump signed bipartisan legislation on Thursday to fund key agencies at the Department of Homeland Security, officially concluding the record-breaking shutdown.
After more than 10 weeks, the president’s signature restores funding to the Coast Guard, TSA, Secret Service, FEMA and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, along with other sub-agencies that don’t touch immigration enforcement. Congressional Republicans are separately working to enact tens of billions of dollars for Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement through a party-line reconciliation package, a process that progressed this week with the adoption of a framework to unlock a special budget authority to bypass the Senate filibuster.
House Republicans pushed past internal divisions as the White House and DHS warned stopgap funds to cover missed paychecks — pulled from the One Big Beautiful Bill — would run out within days. Agencies were bracing for additional furloughs as soon as next week, as DHS staffers were expected to get their final paychecks on May 8, according to an administration official, granted anonymity to share the timing.
While some immigration agencies have yet to be funded, enforcement operations were already paid for under last year’s GOP megabill. ICE and Border Patrol agents never missed a paycheck.
Still, the DHS shutdown dragged on for 76 days, leaving the agency in limbo at a critical moment on a number of fronts — from national security concerns to hurricane preparedness and lingering impacts on U.S. travel. During that time, Secretary Kristi Noem was fired and Sen. Markwayne Mullin confirmed as the new head of the agency, while the lengthy shutdown left staff dejected at a time when the department was trying to regain its footing after months of turmoil.
The agency, which oversees ICE and CBP, has been at the center of the monthslong funding fight on Capitol Hill. In the wake of the Trump administration’s deadly operation in Minneapolis, Democrats stayed united in resisting additional funding for those agencies without additional guardrails placed on immigration enforcement. Democrats ultimately failed to gain significant policy concessions from the Trump administration, and have questioned why the White House needs more funding for immigration agencies when it has billions remaining for border security and deportations from last year’s GOP megalaw.
