House Approves DHS Funding Bill Amid Predominant Democratic Opposition to Shutdown Resolution

On Thursday, the House of Representatives passed a bill aimed at reopening the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Nevertheless, the majority of Democrats remain resistant to ending the partial government shutdown, despite a recent leadership change at DHS and ongoing military actions against Iran.

The proposed legislation, which funds entities such as ICE, FEMA, and TSA until September 30, was approved with a 221-207 vote. The bill now proceeds to the Senate, where it requires 60 votes to pass.

Democrats Henry Cuellar of Texas, Jared Golden of Maine, Marie Gluesenkamp-Perez of Washington, and Don Davis of North Carolina were the only members of their party to support the measure to end the 20-day shutdown.

Incorporated within the bill were several Democratic provisions, including mandates for body cameras and new training standards for ICE agents.

Previously, a similar bill was passed by the House in January. Republican leaders insisted on another vote, citing increased concerns about possible threats from Iran and its affiliated terrorist groups.

The House’s decision coincided with President Trump’s announcement of replacing Kristi Noem as the head of DHS with Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma.

“It’s not like Kristi Noem was the one who was involved in negotiating anything,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) told reporters, according to Fox News, signaling that the leadership change won’t be enough. “She was a corrupt lackey. So we were dealing with the White House before, and we’re going to continue to deal with the White House at this point.” 

Jeffries further described the GOP argument that DHS should be funded immediately because of the Iran conflict as “insane,” the outlet reported. 

“Donald Trump launches an unauthorized war in the Middle East … He decides that he wants to spend billions of dollars to bomb Iran, rather than spend taxpayer dollars to lower the grocery bills that are crushing the American people, and then wants to use his unauthorized war as an excuse to continue spending taxpayer dollars to brutalize or kill American citizens by continuing to unleash ICE without restriction on the American people?” Jeffries said. “I think it’s ridiculous.”

The Senate also voted again Thursday on the House-passed DHS funding bill from January, but it failed to garner the 60 votes needed to pass. 

“Having kept DHS shut down now for three weeks and counting, Democrats will once again leave Washington today and head to the airport, where they will walk past some of the 50,000 TSA agents who are missing part of their pay because of Senate Democrats,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said on the floor of the upper chamber. 

“This is the second time in six months the Democrats have subjected thousands of workers to the pain and uncertainty of a government shutdown,” Thune fumed, noting that many of the  federal employees impacted by the shutdown have “nothing to do with immigration enforcement.” 

He continued, “Let’s be clear, this is not some principled stand by Democrats …  it’s looking a lot like Democrats just want to keep this alive as a political issue.” 

“They’re interested in politics, not policy. And public safety ends up suffering as a result of their decision to shut down the Department of Homeland Security.”