{"id":350478,"date":"2026-03-27T11:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T11:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/350478\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T11:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T11:27:09","slug":"senate-unanimously-moves-to-fund-most-of-dhs-except-ice-and-border-patrol-in-rare-overnight-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/350478\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate unanimously moves to fund most of DHS, except ICE and border patrol, in rare overnight session"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n The Senate unanimously moved to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security<\/a>, except for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and part of Customs and Border Protection, in a rare overnight session.\n <\/p>\n

\n The agreement would fund other DHS components, such as the Transportation Security Administration and US Coast Guard, but the House will still need to act before funded agencies within the department can reopen. The move is meant to alleviate long lines at airports, while lawmakers continue to debate possible reforms to immigration enforcement by DHS.\n <\/p>\n

\n The move came just hours after President Donald Trump had directed his newly installed Department of Homeland Security chief<\/a> to swiftly pay TSA agents in a bid to reduce lines at airports as talks appeared to have fallen apart. While much of Washington slept and officials mulled how to implement Trump\u2019s order, senators focused on moving the funding they were able to agree on by unanimous consent.\n <\/p>\n

\n On his way to the floor in the wee hours of the morning on Friday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters, \u201cWe\u2019re gonna execute on as much as DHS as we can tonight, and then we\u2019ll fund the rest of it later.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The standoff over funding for DHS<\/a> has withheld pay for thousands of TSA agents and other DHS workers, causing major travel delays and scores of missed flights nationwide. Frustration on Capitol Hill hit new levels<\/a> this week, and senators pushed to end the impasse before a scheduled two-week recess.\n <\/p>\n

\n Pressed on what specifically would be funded, Thune replied, \u201cI think it\u2019ll be everything but ICE and CBP today. So, we\u2019ll have to do the rest of that,\u201d though he noted that, \u201cI think customs, they cleared customs,\u201d but not border patrol.\n <\/p>\n

\n Although the bill passed by the Senate doesn\u2019t include funding for ICE and border patrol, Republicans had already made provisions to fund those agencies as part of their massive domestic policy package last year. \u201cThe good news is we anticipated this a year ago,\u201d said Thune. \u201cI mean, one of the reasons we frontloaded, pre-loaded up the one, big, beautiful bill with advanced funding for Homeland Security was because we anticipated this was likely going to happen, and it did.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Thune said that he spoke with President Donald Trump earlier Thursday evening, before Trump announced he would direct DHS to pay TSA agents<\/a> even if the department remained unfunded.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI talked to him earlier today, right before he made his announcement. So yeah, I mean he anticipates what we\u2019re attempting to do here,\u201d he told reporters.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump\u2019s move could remain relevant, though, if the House doesn\u2019t act. Asked whether he believes the House will adopt the same measure to fund most of the department, Thune said, \u201cI don\u2019t know what the House will do.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI mean, the House is aware of what we\u2019re contemplating, I think, and I \u2014 think they\u2019re probably anxious to take this up any more than, you know, this time of the day, on a Friday, but hopefully they\u2019ll be around and we can get at least a lot of the government opened up again, and then we\u2019ll, we\u2019ll go from there,\u201d he continued.\n <\/p>\n

\n Thune argued that, while Democrats had initially said they would fund everything but ICE and CBP, Democrats have now lost the opportunity to leverage changes to ICE protocols and tactics. \u201cI still think it\u2019s unfortunate,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Dems wanted reforms. We tried to work with them on reforms. They ended up getting no reforms. But, you know, we\u2019re going to have to fight some of those battles another day.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer declared he was \u201cvery proud\u201d of his caucus that \u201cstood united\u201d amid the ongoing DHS shutdown.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIn the wake of the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Senate Democrats were clear: no blank check for a lawless ICE and border patrol. This long overdue agreement funds TSA, the Coast Guard, FEMA, CISA, strengthens security at the border in the ports of entry, and keeps Americans safe,\u201d announced Schumer.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis could have been accomplished weeks ago if Republicans hadn\u2019t stood in the way. Democrats held firm in our opposition that Donald Trump\u2019s rogue and deadly, deadly militia should not get more funding without serious reforms, and we will continue to fight for those reforms. I\u2019m very proud of our Democratic caucus. Throughout it all Senate Democrats stood united. No wavering, no backing down. We held the line.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Thune pointed out that, with negotiations collapsing, Senate Democrats did not get the changes to ICE protocols and tactics they had previously demanded, and argued, \u201cDemocrats didn\u2019t actually want a solution.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey wanted an issue. Politics over policy, self-interest over reform, pandering to their base instead of actually solving the problem,\u201d the South Dakota Republican added.\n <\/p>\n

\n This story has been updated with additional details.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Senate unanimously moved to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security, except for Immigration and Customs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-350478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}