Congress’s No. 1 priority will be to find a way forward on DHS funding—although at present, a compromise still seems distant.
Lawmakers will return to Capitol Hill this week with a long to-do list as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) remains in a partial shutdown.
Ending that shutdown—which as of April 13 reached its 58th day—will be a top priority for lawmakers, even as they remain divided along party lines on how to move forward with the funding.
Lawmakers will also work on reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a controversial surveillance law that includes the collection of American citizens’ personal data that is set to expire on April 20.
They’ll also consider a budget request from the White House raising the Pentagon’s budget to $1.5 trillion—by far the largest military budget ever requested.
Here’s what to know.
DHS Funding
Congress’s No. 1 priority will be to find a way forward as DHS remains shut down—although at present, a compromise still seems distant as the two chambers remain at odds on how to move forward.
Democrats have demanded significant reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and parts of Customs and Border Patrol (CBP)—both subsidiaries of DHS—in exchange for supporting new funding for the department. They have tied these demands to the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Nicole Renée Good in Minneapolis by immigration enforcement agents.
Republicans have rejected parts of these demands, particularly a proposed prohibition on agents’ wearing masks while in the field, citing the need to protect officers from being doxed by activists.
Some House Republicans have also pushed for the passage of the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility Act, a voting bill, as a condition of any reforms to ICE and CBP. However, Senate Democrats have consistently opposed the bill, which doesn’t seem to have a clear path forward in Congress.
Before leaving for the spring recess, the Senate passed a bill that would have fully funded DHS with the exception of ICE and CBP, whose immigration enforcement operations have already been funded through September 2029 by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) rejected this deal as a “joke.” Instead, the House passed a 60-day stopgap that would have fully funded DHS. That bill has been rejected by Senate Democrats for its lack of reforms.
Ahead of Congress’s recess, President Donald Trump signed an executive order granting full pay to agents of the Transportation Security Administration, whose increasing employee absences had led to record-breaking security lines at airports across the country.
FISA Section 702
Another top priority for lawmakers will be passing a reauthorization of Section 702 of FISA, a surveillance law that’s due to expire on April 20.
On March 25, Trump—a former critic of Section 702—requested that Congress pass a “clean” reauthorization of the law.
“I have called for a clean 18-month extension,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Section 702 targets intelligence from foreign nationals thought to be outside the United States. Yet it also enables intelligence agencies to gather “incidental” information from Americans who are in contact with targeted non-U.S. persons—all without a warrant.
By Joseph Lord
