Speaker of the House Mike Johnson attempted to assert his authority
after the Senate approved a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) without allocating resources for ICE and border patrol.
In response, Johnson and the House Republicans enacted a 60-day continuing resolution after senators had departed the Capitol for the Easter recess.
Johnson strongly insisted that the House majority would reject any legislation that excluded funding for ICE and border patrol.
However, with Trump reportedly unable to maintain payments for TSA workers, Johnson ultimately conceded.
Within a week, Johnson’s stance shifted, as reflected in a joint statement with Senate Majority Leader Thune:
We appreciate and share the President’s determination to finally resolve the Democrat DHS shutdown. In the forthcoming days, Republicans in the Senate and House will execute the President’s directive by fully funding the entire Department of Homeland Security through two concurrent tracks: the appropriations process and the reconciliation process.
We commend Senator Graham and the Senate Budget Committee for initiating the development of a budget resolution that will secure funding for border security and immigration enforcement throughout the remainder of the Trump Administration, safeguarding it from future Democratic efforts to defund these agencies. We operated under the belief that amidst an international armed conflict, Democrats would realize that defunding our homeland security agencies is reckless and perilous.
The challenge remains that Johnson lacks the necessary votes in the House to pass a reconciliation bill.
How Republicans intend to pass a reconciliation bill is uncertain, but this did not prevent Johnson and Thune from attributing their setback to the Democrats.
