Updated April 30, 2026, 4:57 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON ‒ Congress finally ended the historic Department of Homeland Security shutdown, resolving the longest crisis of its kind in American history.
In an abrupt afternoon voice vote on Thursday, April 30, the House of Representatives passed a funding bill for the agency with seemingly unanimous support, sending it to President Donald Trump‘s desk.
The vote resolved a political showdown that has plagued Capitol Hill and the country for about 75 days. The ordeal, which exposed fierce acrimony between House and Senate Republicans, left thousands of workers without pay, upended air travel and jeopardized Americans’ safety. After the White House unilaterally shifted money to pay the agency’s workers, it also likely wrought longer-term implications for Congress’ authority over federal spending.
The impasse was prompted by congressional Democrats’ demands for immigration enforcement reforms after the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good. Yet the big changes they wanted, such as a ban on masks for officers and judicial warrant requirements for immigration raids, never materialized.
“Democrats got absolutely nothing for their political charade and shenanigans out of that,” Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Thursday.
On Wednesday night, the House cleared a key hurdle in ending the shutdown by greenlighting a budget blueprint to funnel $70 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. The broader DHS funding bill doesn’t, however, include funding for immigration enforcement, which became a sticking point for GOP hardliners in the House. The Senate unanimously approved the DHS bill weeks ago, but Johnson let it sit as he worked to smooth over party infighting.
The delay frustrated lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
“Speaker Johnson extended the DHS shutdown for over a month for no reason at all,” Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement. “This is the same bill the Senate unanimously passed five weeks ago.”
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin previously warned that by the first week of May, he would run out of time to reroute any more money to his workers, including Transportation Security Administration agents.
“There’s a lot on the line,” Rep. Mike Flood, R-Nebraska, told reporters Thursday morning. “When you talk to Markwayne Mullin … he’s pulling the fire alarm.”
The American Federation of Government Employees, the national union for federal workers, applauded the shutdown’s end. But Everett Kelley, the group’s president, said it took an unacceptably long time to reach a deal. In a statement, he called on Congress to pass the Shutdown Fairness Act, a bill that would ensure federal employees continue to get paid during future shutdowns.
“Too many times we have seen lawmakers use patriotic federal employees’ livelihoods as leverage for political gains,” he said. “Federal employees are not political pawns.”
Zachary Schermele is a congressional reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social.
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