The House on Wednesday advanced a crucial step toward funding the Department of Homeland Security, moving to unlock a broader package as the White House cautioned that money supporting TSA and other DHS personnel is running out. The administration said the potential lapse could put essential DHS staff and operations at risk.
In a largely party-line vote, House Republicans adopted a budget resolution, 215-211, setting in motion the chamber’s next stage of budget work. While the resolution does not itself provide the money, it is aimed at eventually laying out roughly $70 billion for immigration enforcement and deportations for the remainder of Trump’s time in office—an approach Democrats rejected.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said after more stop-and-start action in the chamber dragged into the evening that “It takes time,” adding, “We will get there.” The vote reflects how Johnson’s narrow Republican majority has struggled to move bills forward amid internal disputes, including on the broader Homeland Security funding fight.
As Congress weighs what comes next, the White House urged lawmakers to act quickly. In a late Tuesday memo to lawmakers, the Office of Management and Budget said “DHS will soon run out of critical operating funds, placing essential personnel and operations at risk,” and called the matter urgent. The memo also pointed to renewed concern around public safety after a weekend attack attempt at the White House correspondents’ dinner.
Homeland Security has been operating without regular funds for more than two months, since Feb. 14, as a dispute over Trump’s immigration agenda has prevented regular funding from moving forward. Next steps were expected Thursday, when the House is likely to consider a Democratic-backed bill intended to fund much of the department, with the border and detention components carved out. Republicans said those excluded parts—Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement—could be addressed later in the broader budget resolution process.
The funding standoff has complicated pay and staffing across different DHS agencies. The administration and lawmakers described TSA and other workers as having relied on Trump’s intervention through executive action to keep paychecks moving temporarily, while immigration enforcement funding has drawn on new cash Congress approved as part of Trump’s tax cuts bill last year. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said recently that salaries were running at more than $1.6 billion every two weeks, and he tied the renewed urgency to the money drying up.
Budget strategy has also split Republicans and Democrats along the immigration enforcement line. Democrats refused to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol without changes to those operations, citing the deaths of Americans protesting Trump’s deportation agenda. Republicans refused the wider Democratic-backed bill to fund TSA and other parts of Homeland Security unless it also included money for ICE and Border Patrol, a dispute that has kept lawmakers from landing on a single package.
Republicans have pursued a go-it-alone plan aimed at separating funding decisions so that immigration enforcement and deportations can be funded for the rest of Trump’s term without interruption from Democrats. The process, as described by lawmakers, is cumbersome and is expected to play out over several weeks. With House and Senate budget resolutions now adopted, lawmakers would next draft a $70 billion funding bill for ICE and Border Patrol, with voting expected in May, and Trump saying he wants it on his desk by June 1.
Meanwhile, TSA workers and aviation industry groups have pressed lawmakers to fully fund TSA promptly. Airlines for America, the U.S. airlines trade group, said more than 1,000 TSA officers have quit since the shutdown began and called Wednesday for Congress to fully fund the agency. The group said the “urgency to provide predictable and stable funding for TSA is growing stronger by the day,” warning that TSA’s workers and customers have been harmed by congressional inaction.