The House passed a 60-day continuing resolution to fund the Department of Homeland Security on Friday, but its fate remains uncertain as the Senate is in a scheduled two-week recess.
The measure cleared the chamber in a 213-203 vote, with three Democrats joining Republicans in support.
House Speaker Mike Johnson had pushed the short-term funding bill after opposing a Senate-passed measure that would fund most of DHS but exclude immigration enforcement, a key sticking point for House Republicans.
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“It’s infuriating that Democrats are willing to inflict pain on the American people simply so they can defund the agency that is responsible literally for removing criminal illegal aliens,” Johnson told reporters on Friday. “That’s what this is about. They just put it on display for the country again what they’re for, and I think it is detestable.”
The bill now faces an uncertain path in the Senate, where lawmakers are in recess and Democrats have opposed advancing DHS funding without policy changes to ICE.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Friday directing DHS to pay Transportation Security Administration employees after weeks without pay during the funding impasse.
DHS said the first paychecks could reach TSA workers “as early as Monday, March 30.”
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