WASHINGTON (AP) — The House took a crucial step Wednesday toward funding the Department of Homeland Security, as the Trump administration warned that money to pay Transportation Security Administration and other agency personnel will “soon run out,” sparking new threats of airport disruptions and national security concerns.
House Republicans adopted a budget resolution on a largely party-line vote, 215-211. The action doesn’t automatically fund the department — it’s focused on eventually providing $70 billion for immigration enforcement and deportations for the remainder of President Donald Trump’s time in office, which Democrats oppose.
But launching the GOP budget process, which will play out over weeks to come, has been what Speaker Mike Johnson needed to unlock a broader bipartisan bill for TSA agents and others that has languished during the longest-ever agency shutdown in history. That bill is expected to come to a vote Thursday to fund much of the agency.
“It takes time,” Johnson, R-La., said after another day of start-stop action in the chamber that dragged for hours into the evening. “We will get there.”
The House’s narrow Republican majority has repeatedly stalled out under Johnson’s gavel, with his own party tangled in internal disputes on a range of pending issues, including the Homeland Security funding.
Democrats refused to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol without changes to those operations after the deaths of Americans protesting Trump’s deportation agenda. Republicans refused the broader Democratic-backed bill to fund TSA and the other aspects of Homeland Security without the money for ICE and Border Patrol.
But the White House urged Congress this week to act, warning the money Trump tapped to temporarily pay TSA and other workers through executive actions is drying up.
“DHS will soon run out of critical operating funds, placing essential personnel and operations at risk,” said a memo from the Office of Management and Budget.
Homeland Security shutdown is longest ever
Homeland Security has been operating without regular funds for more than two months, since Feb. 14, in a broader dispute over Trump’s immigration agenda.
In the memo late Tuesday to lawmakers, the White House called on the House to quickly approve the budget resolution that GOP senators had approved in an all-night session last week to kickstart the process.
“Restoring funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has never been more urgent, as demonstrated by recent events,” the White House memo said, a nod to the situation over the weekend when a man armed with guns and knives tried to storm the annual White House correspondents’ dinner that Trump, the vice president and top Cabinet officials were attending.
But the day wore on as Johnson huddled privately with lawmakers sorting out other issues that stalled voting.
Next steps are expected Thursday when the House is likely to consider the Democratic-backed bill to fund the department, minus the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement funds, which are expected to come later this summer in the budget resolution process.
Immigration enforcement operations central to the debate
While 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 TSA, have had to rely on Trump’s intervention through executive action to ensure their paychecks.
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But with salaries topping $1.6 billion every two weeks, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said recently, those funds are drying up.
Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, the chairman of the Budget Committee, argued that the Democrats are making “ridiculous and even dangerous demands” as they push for changes to immigration operations.
But Democrats have held firm in the aftermath of the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, the budget panel’s top Democrat, said, “We know there are reforms that need to happen with ICE and CPB in order to rein in the abuses we have seen.”
More than 1,000 TSA officers have quit since the shutdown began, according to Airlines for America, the U.S. airlines trade group that called Wednesday on Congress to fully fund the agency.
“The urgency to provide predictable and stable funding for TSA is growing stronger by the day,” the group said in a statement. “Time and time again, our nation’s aviation workers and customers have been the victim of Congress’ failure to do their jobs.”
Complicated budget strategy ahead
House and Senate Republicans have embarked on a go-it-alone strategy, attempting to approve funds for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol for the remainder of Trump’s term to ensure no further interruptions from Democrats.
It’s a cumbersome process, the same that was used last year to approve Trump’s tax cuts bill, and it will play out over several weeks.
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.
