President Donald Trump signed legislation Thursday restoring full funding to the Department of Homeland Security, ending a 75-day funding lapse that set a record as the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. History.
The bill, which passed the House by voice vote after the Senate approved it earlier, covers most DHS operations through September. Trump signed it Thursday afternoon.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection will remain unfunded under the legislation. The two agencies most responsible for enforcing immigration law at the border and inside the country are not included in the spending measure.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had blocked the Senate’s DHS bill from coming to the floor for more than a month. Johnson objected to language in the bill he said effectively defunded law enforcement. Many House Republicans shared those concerns, viewing the bill as unacceptable when it passed the Senate unanimously in March.
Johnson reversed course this week after the White House signaled it wanted the Senate bill passed quickly. With DHS employees facing the prospect of missed paychecks, the administration had been drawing down reserve funds to cover back pay since early April.
A White House memo obtained by Fox News Digital laid out the stakes in stark terms. “If this funding is exhausted, the Administration will be unable to pay DHS personnel beginning in May, which will once again unleash havoc on air travel, leave critical law enforcement officers, including our brave Secret Service agents, and the Coast Guard without paychecks, and jeopardize national security,” the memo stated.
DHS is one of the federal government’s largest agencies, with more than 200,000 personnel. Beyond ICE and CBP, the department oversees the Secret Service, the Transportation Security Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The 75-day lapse exceeded any previous partial funding gap on record. DHS had been operating without a full appropriation since mid-February, forcing the agency to rely on continuing resolutions and emergency reserves to keep operations running.
