WASHINGTON, April 2 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Senate on Thursday sent its deal to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) back to the House in an attempt to end the prolonged partial shutdown.
The bill, which would fund most of the DHS through a bipartisan deal with Democrats, excludes funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and parts of Customs and Border Protection.
The Senate approved the same measure last week and sent it to the House, but conservatives objected to separating immigration enforcement funding, and the House ultimately rejected it.
House Republicans reversed course after U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday set a firm June 1 deadline for funding immigration enforcement. "We are going to work as fast, and as focused, as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE Agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won't be able to stop us," Trump said on Truth Social.
Trump's statement signaled his support for a two-track strategy favored by Senate Majority Leader John Thune -- funding most of DHS through a bipartisan deal with Democrats, followed by using the reconciliation process to secure funding for ICE and Border Patrol.
The reconciliation process is a special procedure in the Senate that allows certain tax and spending legislation to pass with a simple majority, instead of the usual 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. Republicans hold 53 seats in the Senate.
Democrats have called for reforms to ICE operations following the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis in January, but Republicans have rejected the demands, resulting in a deadlock in negotiations over DHS funding.
On March 25, Acting Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill told a House Homeland Security Committee hearing that wait times at U.S. airport security checkpoints had reached the highest levels in the 24-year history of the TSA amid the prolonged DHS shutdown, with some exceeding four hours.
On March 27, Trump signed a presidential memorandum to pay TSA agents, who have been working without pay and facing rising absenteeism since the DHS shutdown. TSA officers received their first paychecks in more than a month on Monday.
The latest development in Congress provides a glimmer of progress in resolving the lengthy DHS shutdown that began Feb. 14. ■
