Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullin has said that payroll transfer funds for thousands of employees will be exhausted by the first week of May.
House finally ends record Department of Homeland Security shutdown
The House finally ended the historic shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, passing a funding bill for the department with near-unanimous support.
WASHINGTON – Congress has finally ended the historic shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, resolving the longest crisis of its kind in American history.
In a surprise voice vote on Thursday afternoon, April 30, the House of Representatives passed a funding bill for the agency with seemingly unanimous support, sending it to President Donald Trump’s desk.
The vote resolved a political standoff that had plagued the Capitol and the nation for about 75 days. The ordeal exposed bitter tensions between House and Senate Republicans, left thousands of workers without pay, disrupted air travel and put the safety of Americans at risk. The White House’s unilateral transfer of funds to pay government employees likely also had long-term implications for Congress’ authority over federal spending.
The impasse was caused by demands by Congressional Democrats for immigration enforcement reform after the murders of Alex Preti and Renee Nicole Good. But the big changes they had hoped for, such as banning police officers from wearing masks and requiring judicial warrants for immigration raids, did not materialize.
House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Thursday that “Democrats got absolutely nothing out of the political charade and shenanigans that come with it.”
The House of Representatives on Wednesday night gave the green light to a budget that would provide $70 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Protection, clearing a key hurdle to ending the government shutdown. But the broader DHS funding bill does not include funding for immigration enforcement, a sticking point for hardline Republicans in the House. The Senate unanimously approved the DHS bill several weeks ago, but Mr. Johnson left it alone as he tried to resolve intraparty conflicts.
The delay frustrated lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
“Speaker Johnson extended the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security for more than a month for absolutely no reason,” Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement. “This is the same bill that the Senate passed unanimously five weeks ago.”
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin previously warned that the agency would run out of time to direct more funding to employees, including Transportation Security Administration employees, by the first week of May.
“There’s a lot at stake,” Rep. Mike Flood (R-Nebraska) told reporters Thursday morning. “If you talk to Markwayne Mullin…he’s setting off the fire alarm.”
The American Federation of Public Employees, the national union for federal employees, praised the end of the shutdown. But the group’s president, Everett Kelly, said it took an unacceptably long time to reach an agreement. In a statement, he called on Congress to pass the Shutdown Fairness Act, a bill that would ensure federal workers continue to receive paychecks during future government shutdowns.
“Time and time again, we have seen members of Congress use the lives of patriotic federal employees as leverage for political gain,” he said. “Federal employees are not political pawns.”
Zachary Schermele is a Congressional reporter for USA TODAY. You can email us at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and on Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social..
