Three Shutdowns Later, Trump Signs Bill Funding Department of Homeland Security Through Fiscal Year
Why It Matters
After one of the most turbulent government funding battles in recent memory, President Donald Trump on Thursday signed legislation funding nearly all of the Department of Homeland Security for the remainder of the fiscal year. The signing ends a protracted standoff that cost federal workers paychecks, disrupted critical agencies, and stretched the annual appropriations process nearly seven months past its legal deadline — with consequences felt from airport security checkpoints to disaster relief offices across the country, including in North Dakota.
What Happened
The House passed the DHS appropriations bill by voice vote on Thursday, and Trump signed it into law the same day. The legislation funds most DHS agencies through the end of the fiscal year but notably excludes additional appropriations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol — a deliberate carveout that allowed the bill to clear the Senate without triggering a Democratic filibuster.
The signing formally closes out a government funding cycle that was supposed to be completed before October 1 of last year. Instead, lawmakers’ deep divisions over immigration enforcement policy produced a series of partial and full shutdowns that left federal employees across multiple agencies without paychecks for extended periods.
Senate Republican leaders ultimately agreed to strip ICE and Border Patrol funding from the DHS bill in order to move it forward. Speaker Mike Johnson initially refused to schedule a House vote on the Senate-passed measure, but relented Thursday, bringing the bill to the floor less than 24 hours after the House adopted a budget resolution unlocking the reconciliation process.
By the Numbers
Three — the total number of government funding shutdowns over the past year before Thursday’s signing ended the funding gap.
43 days — the duration of the first shutdown, which affected a broad swath of the federal government as Democrats pushed to extend expanded health insurance tax credits tied to the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
Four days — the length of the second partial shutdown, which ended in early February when lawmakers passed a stopgap DHS spending bill alongside full-year appropriations for other departments.
Feb. 14 — the date DHS’s temporary funding expired for a third time, triggering the most recent shutdown after lawmakers failed to reach a bipartisan agreement on immigration enforcement guardrails.
Up to $140 billion — the amount Republicans plan to allocate for ICE and Border Patrol through the budget reconciliation process, which does not require Democratic votes to pass the Senate.
Voices From the Floor
Connecticut Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro, ranking member on the House Appropriations Committee, said during floor debate that it was “about damn time” Republican leaders brought the bill forward. She argued the resolution could have come 76 days earlier had Republican leaders been more willing to negotiate.
Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy pushed back sharply on the decision to exclude ICE and Border Patrol from the bill, calling it “offensive to the men and women who serve” in those agencies. Roy defended immigration agents as doing critical work to protect Americans from cartels and illegal aliens, and said Republicans are “absolutely horrified” the appropriations process was used to sideline funding for those agencies. Republicans have signaled they intend to make those agents whole through reconciliation — bypassing the 60-vote Senate threshold that would otherwise require Democratic cooperation.
Zoom Out
The repeated funding lapses highlight the structural breakdown in Congress’s annual appropriations process, which has increasingly become a vehicle for high-stakes policy battles. The standoff over DHS was driven in large part by Democratic demands for new restrictions on federal immigration agents following the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis in January — a flashpoint that paralyzed negotiations for months. Similar fights over immigration enforcement have complicated spending negotiations in prior years, but the scale of this year’s disruption — three shutdowns in a single fiscal cycle — is historically significant.
What’s Next
Republicans plan to use the budget reconciliation process to fund ICE and Border Patrol for the remainder of Trump’s term, potentially allocating up to $140 billion. That process was unlocked when both chambers adopted a budget resolution earlier this week. Lawmakers will also need to negotiate and pass a full slate of government funding bills before October 1, when the next fiscal year begins. Failure to reach agreement before that deadline could trigger yet another shutdown — this one arriving just weeks before the November midterm elections.