House Passes DHS Funding Bill, Ending Weeks-long Agency Shutdown

The U.S. House voted on Thursday to fund much of the Department of Homeland Security, but not its immigration enforcement operations, and send the bipartisan package to President Donald Trump to sign, ending the longest agency shutdown in history that started on February 14. The House swiftly voted by voice, without a formal roll call, to pass the measure. The U.S. Senate unanimously approved the bipartisan package a month ago, but the bill languished in the House because the House Republicans, with a narrow majority, were tangled in internal disputes on a range of pending issues. Democrats refused to fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol without changes to those operations after the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal agents during protests against an immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. The Republicans in the House and Senate will tackle the funding for immigration enforcement through budget reconciliation, a cumbersome, weeks-long process ahead.