Congress Ends Record Department of Homeland Security Shutdown, Sends Funding Bill to Donald Trump

Congress ended the record-breaking Department of Homeland Security shutdown on Thursday, with the House passing a funding bill for the agency and sending it to President Donald Trump’s desk, according to USA TODAY.

The House vote came “in an abrupt afternoon voice vote on Thursday, April 30,” resolving a standoff that had “plagued Capitol Hill and the country for about 75 days,” the outlet reported.

Associated Press

Politico described the bill as one that would fund “all of the Department of Homeland Security except its immigration enforcement agencies,” potentially ending the “department’s 76-day shutdown.”

Time Magazine likewise said the “longest government shutdown in American history ended on Thursday with President Donald Trump’s signature on an appropriations bill” passed by the House earlier that day after Senate approval.

Multiple outlets emphasized that the legislation would fund major DHS components while excluding immigration enforcement agencies, including “Immigration and Customs Enforcement and parts of Border Patrol,” as Time Magazine put it.

NBC News and NBC4 Washington both said Trump signed the measure into law Thursday afternoon or evening, with NBC News noting it funded agencies “such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration and the Secret Service through the end of September.”

In the same reporting, NBC4 Washington said the bill “does not provide new funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Border Patrol,” while Democrats demanded changes to immigration enforcement.

The shutdown began on Feb. 14 amid a dispute over immigration enforcement, with Time Magazine tracing the standoff to “federal officers fatally shooting two American citizens in Minneapolis at the start of the year.”

Time Magazine said Democratic lawmakers refused to pass a DHS funding bill unless it included “new guardrails on federal immigration agents,” while Republicans rejected the demands, arguing the measures would “impede the Trump Administration’s immigration enforcement agenda.”

Association of Defense Communities

USA TODAY reported that the impasse was “prompted by congressional Democrats' demands for immigration enforcement reforms after the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good,” and it added that “Yet the big changes they wanted, such as a ban on masks for officers and judicial warrant requirements for immigration raids, never materialized.”

NBC News similarly described Democrats objecting to funding “Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol,” and it said Democrats pushed for reforms including “banning the use of face masks and requiring warrants for certain immigration-related arrests.”

The dispute left “thousands of DHS staffers working without pay for weeks,” Time Magazine reported, including “TSA officers,” and it said many TSA agents “called out of work or quit the force entirely to take on other jobs.”

USA TODAY said the ordeal “left thousands of workers without pay, upended air travel and jeopardized Americans' safety,” and it described how the White House unilaterally shifted money to pay workers.

CNN and Fox News both tied the shutdown’s length to GOP infighting and pressure on Speaker Mike Johnson, with CNN saying the bill was delayed by “weeks of GOP infighting that prolonged a record shutdown” and Fox News describing Johnson’s earlier refusal to put the Senate bill on the floor.

Across the reporting, the timeline converged on a deadline warning from DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin that money to pay staffers would run out by “the first week of May,” a point USA TODAY and Time Magazine both highlighted.

As the House moved to end the shutdown, lawmakers and officials traded accusations over who had blocked action and what, if anything, Democrats had won.

USA TODAY quoted Speaker Mike Johnson telling reporters Thursday, “Democrats got absolutely nothing for their political charade and shenanigans out of that,” framing the outcome as a rejection of Democratic demands.

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, criticized Johnson’s delay in a statement, saying, “Speaker Johnson extended the DHS shutdown for over a month for no reason at all,

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