Senate unanimously moves to fund most of DHS, except ICE and border patrol, in rare overnight session

CNN

By Ted Barrett, Morgan Rimmer, CNN

(CNN) — The Senate unanimously moved to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security, except for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and part of Customs and Border Protection, in a rare overnight session.

The agreement would fund other parts of the department, such as the Transportation Security Administration and US Coast Guard, but the House will need to act before funded agencies within the department can reopen. The move is meant to alleviate long lines at airports, while lawmakers continue to debate possible reforms to federal immigration enforcement.

The move came just hours after President Donald Trump had directed his newly installed Department of Homeland Security chief to swiftly pay TSA agents in a bid to reduce lines at airports as talks appeared to have fallen apart. While much of Washington slept and officials mulled how to implement Trump’s order, senators focused on moving the funding they were able to agree on by unanimous consent.

The standoff over funding for DHS has withheld pay for thousands of TSA agents and other DHS workers, causing major travel delays and scores of missed flights nationwide. Frustrations over the stalemate on Capitol Hill hit new levels this week, and senators pushed to end the impasse before a scheduled two-week recess.

Pressed on what specifically would be funded, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said, “I think it’ll be everything but ICE and CBP today. So, we’ll have to do the rest of that,” though he noted, “I think customs, they cleared customs” but not border patrol.

Although the bill passed by the Senate doesn’t include funding for ICE and border patrol, Republicans had already made provisions to fund those agencies as part of their massive domestic policy package last year.

“The good news is we anticipated this a year ago,” said Thune. “I mean, one of the reasons we frontloaded, pre-loaded up the ‘One, Big, Beautiful Bill’ with advanced funding for Homeland Security was because we anticipated this was likely going to happen, and it did.”

Thune said that he had spoken with Trump earlier in the evening, before the president announced he would direct DHS to pay TSA agents even if the department remained unfunded.

“I talked to him earlier today, right before he made his announcement. So yeah, I mean he anticipates what we’re attempting to do here,” Thune told reporters.

Trump’s move could remain relevant, though, if the House doesn’t act. For his part, Thune said he didn’t know “what the House will do.”

“I mean, the House is aware of what we’re contemplating, I think, and I — think they’re probably anxious to take this up any more than, you know, this time of the day, on a Friday, but hopefully they’ll be around and we can get at least a lot of the government opened up again, and then we’ll, we’ll go from there,” the Senate Republican leader said.

Thune argued that, while Democrats had initially said they would fund everything but ICE and CBP, Democrats have now lost the opportunity to leverage changes to ICE protocols and tactics. “I still think it’s unfortunate,” he said. “The Dems wanted reforms. We tried to work with them on reforms. They ended up getting no reforms. But, you know, we’re going to have to fight some of those battles another day.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, meanwhile, declared he was “very proud” of his caucus that “stood united” amid the ongoing DHS shutdown.

“In the wake of the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Senate Democrats were clear: no blank check for a lawless ICE and border patrol. This long overdue agreement funds TSA, the Coast Guard, FEMA, CISA, strengthens security at the border in the ports of entry, and keeps Americans safe,” Schumer said.

“This could have been accomplished weeks ago if Republicans hadn’t stood in the way. Democrats held firm in our opposition that Donald Trump’s rogue and deadly, deadly militia should not get more funding without serious reforms, and we will continue to fight for those reforms. I’m very proud of our Democratic caucus. Throughout it all Senate Democrats stood united. No wavering, no backing down. We held the line.”

Thune pointed out that, with negotiations collapsing, Senate Democrats did not get the changes to ICE protocols and tactics they had previously demanded, and argued, “Democrats didn’t actually want a solution.”

“They wanted an issue. Politics over policy, self-interest over reform, pandering to their base instead of actually solving the problem,” the South Dakota Republican said.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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