Congressional leaders now have less than two weeks to negotiate funding for DHS.
WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump signed a bill on Feb. 3 to end the four-day partial government shutdown.
This comes just hours after the House passed the package in a 217–214 vote. Twenty-one Republicans voted against the Senate-passed package, while 21 Democrats voted for it.
The legislation fully funds five sectors of the federal government through the end of the fiscal year while extending funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) until Feb. 13. Despite its passage, the bill faced significant Democratic opposition, including from party leadership.
Trump, before signing the bill from the Oval Office, called it a “fiscally responsible package that actually cuts wasteful federal spending while supporting critical programs for the safety, security, prosperity of the American people.”
Congressional leaders now have less than two weeks to negotiate funding for DHS.
The legislation provides full-year funding for the departments of Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development. Democrats have demanded reforms to DHS and its immigration enforcement agencies before supporting full-year funding. Many House Democrats—including leaders—have also opposed extending DHS funding at all without those reforms in place.
Rules Committee Ranking Member Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) voiced strong opposition to the bill during a Feb. 2 hearing that sent the measure to the House floor.
“I will not vote for business as usual while masked agents break into people’s homes without a judicial warrant, in violation of the Fourth Amendment,” McGovern said, citing concerns over the executive branch’s use of administrative warrants instead of court-issued judicial warrants.
One Democrat, however, broke with her party. House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) said she would support the package, emphasizing the five full-year funding bills included in the measure that have Democratic backing.
“I will support this package,” DeLauro said, arguing that extending DHS funding preserves leverage to push for reforms in a future full-year DHS funding bill. Without the extension, she said, Democrats “won’t be able to bring the kinds of pressure” needed to secure changes.
