The House of Representatives on Thursday passed legislation to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), effectively ending a record 75-day shutdown of the federal agency.

The bill now heads to President Trump’s desk.

According to NBC News, Trump urged lawmakers to pass the bill and vowed to sign it into law.

“The House just passed the Senate DHS funding bill (funds all of DHS except ICE & CBP) via voice vote. There was no roll call vote requested. It now goes to President Trump’s desk for signature. Democrats had been demanding this for weeks,” Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin said.

“Coast Guard, FEMA, Secret Service, CISA etc funding all included, but again, ICE and CBP are not. ICE and CBP will have to wait until Republicans can pass a second reconciliation bill without any Democratic votes in the Senate,” he added.

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NBC News has more:

Both ICE and border enforcement had funding during the shutdown, and Republicans will attempt in the coming weeks to keep them funded for the rest of Trump’s term.

The House’s action came right against a critical deadline. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin had warned lawmakers that if they did not pass funding by Thursday, emergency funding would run out and thousands of workers would not be paid.

The successful vote came before House and Senate lawmakers departed for a weeklong recess at the end of Thursday. House and Senate lawmakers still need to make sure a foreign spying program doesn’t expire Thursday.

Once Trump signs the funding bill, DHS agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration and the Secret Service would be funded through the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30.

“If this funding is exhausted, the Administration will be unable to pay DHS personnel beginning in May, which will once again unleash havoc on air travel, leave critical law enforcement officers—including our brave Secret Service agents—and the Coast Guard without paychecks, and jeopardize national security,” an internal memo from the White House to congressional offices read, according to Fox News.

The administration had been using existing funds to cover “six weeks of back pay and a new pay period for DHS employees,” the outlet noted.

Fox News shared further:

Trump has requested top Republicans send the immigration enforcement measure to his desk by June 1.

Johnson said he dropped his objections to the Senate bill after his chamber took the first step toward funding Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda late Wednesday.

“We had to ensure that they could not isolate and eliminate those two critical agencies,” Johnson told reporters. “That was critically important for us to ensure that we’re going to protect the homeland.”

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Some Republicans argued that failure to move the Senate’s DHS bill prior to leaving Washington for a planned recess was untenable.

“We have got to fund DHS, even if it’s 80% of DHS,” Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., told Fox News Digital in an interview. “We’re in a dangerous position with funding levels right now. We have to get this done before we even think of leaving on a recess.”

Langworthy sent a letter, obtained by Fox News Digital, to Johnson earlier in the week imploring the speaker to put the Senate’s DHS bill up for a vote.

“What other avenue of approach are you going to have? Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital when asked about whether the House would take up the Senate’s languishing DHS bill. “This is hurting families of individuals willing to serve their communities, their nation, their state. Why wouldn’t we?”

 

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