The Senate voted Tuesday to restart a new effort to reopen the Department of Homeland Security and end the longest partial government shutdown in history, after Senate Republicans moved to create a pathway they say could finally unlock funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.
The 52-46 vote was the first step in a budget process Republicans are using in hopes of avoiding the stalemate that has left the department partially shuttered. The Senate’s action comes after Democrats blocked money for ICE and Border Patrol starting in mid-February, pressing for policy changes following fatal shootings of two protesters by federal agents.
Republican leaders said the mechanism for moving forward is budget reconciliation, a process they have used before to pass President Donald Trump’s package of tax and spending cuts without Democratic votes. Unlike the normal legislative path, reconciliation only requires a simple majority in the Senate, bypassing filibuster rules that typically require 60 votes on most bills when members do not control that threshold.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said reconciliation was not his preference but said “It’s not my preference, but it is reality,” according to the Associated Press report. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the strategy a “partisan sideshow” and said the resolution would pour money into immigration enforcement while leaving what he described as “rogue agencies’ rampant violence in our streets” unrestrained.
Republicans say they also hope to keep the reconciliation measure narrow. The Senate Budget Committee released an estimated $70 billion resolution to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years through the rest of Trump’s term, and Thune and other GOP leaders said they want the bill focused and passed by the end of the month. In the Republican view, Democrats have blocked the requested funding unless the broader immigration-enforcement policies are changed; Republicans are trying to move the funding without accepting those demands.
Party leaders, however, faced internal pressure over what else could be added. The budget process can include an amendment sequence that could expand the scope and alter the bill, and members have argued that procedural and political constraints could limit how much can be changed. The AP reported that some Republicans see the coming vote as the last real chance this year to enact priorities, and that proposals floated by GOP lawmakers include money for farmers and changes tied to Trump’s “proof of citizenship” voting bill, known as the SAVE America Act.
Senators who said they want more included said they planned to pursue amendments on the Senate floor. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said he would try to add parts of the SAVE America Act and proposals related to the economy, arguing Monday that “A lot of Americans are very worried about the cost of living and we need to address it.” At the same time, other Republicans urged restraint, with Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., saying after a Tuesday lunch meeting that “I think people recognize that we have to act quickly,” and that “The more you add the more that slows the process down.”
Democrats said the reconciliation push would still fall short on safeguards they want at ICE. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Democrats and the public demanded ICE be reined in after federal agents shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January, and she argued Republicans rejected what she described as the most basic accountability measures. Democrats said a funding bill should include restraints on federal immigration authorities, including better identification for officers and more use of judicial warrants.
The shutdown fight has been ongoing since Congress failed to reach agreement on Homeland Security funding through the end of the existing authorization period. After the shootings in January, Trump agreed to a Democratic request that the Homeland Security bill be separated from a larger spending measure that became law, but negotiations did not produce an agreement on changes to the Trump administration’s immigration-enforcement tactics. In March, the Senate passed legislation by voice vote to split out ICE and Border Patrol funding from other parts of the department and to fund the rest, but Republicans in the House refused to take it up unless ICE and border-enforcement funding was included.
Republicans also signaled House participation could be conditional. Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson announced a two-track approach after a two-week congressional recess: they would pass the Senate bill that includes most of the department’s funding through regular order, while also using a party-line bill to pass ICE and CBP funding. Weeks later, Johnson had not said when House members would take up the Senate legislation for the rest of the department, and the AP reported it was still unclear whether Johnson’s GOP conference would unite behind the narrowed budget plan.
Ahead of Tuesday’s vote, Johnson said the House would figure out the next steps, telling reporters: “We’ve got lots of discussion today and in the coming days to make sure we can get that through and I think we will.”