Trump signs bill funding DHS, ending record-breaking 76-day shutdown

Updated on: April 30, 2026 / 6:10 PM EDT / CBS News
The House unanimously approved a Senate-passed bill to fund most of DHS earlier in the day, with the exception of the department's immigration enforcement agencies, which have been largely unaffected by the shutdown.

The chamber passed the legislation through voice vote with little fanfare, a sign that lawmakers were finally ready to put the impasse behind them.

The 76-day shutdown left many critical agencies like the Coast Guard, FEMA and the TSA struggling to maintain operations as funding ran dry.

Repurposed money to pay employees was set to expire within days, increasing pressure on lawmakers to resolve the funding lapse.

Spending authority for the department expired on Feb.

14, kicking off weeks of protracted negotiations between Republicans and Democrats that ultimately resulted in the bill that earned the House's sign-off.

From the start, Democrats objected to funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, the two agencies under DHS that have led the charge in enforcing Mr.

Trump's immigration crackdown.

Democrats pushed for reforms to the agencies' operations, including banning the use of face masks and requiring warrants for certain immigration-related arrests.

But talks over those reforms failed in the Senate.

In the dead of night last month, the chamber unanimously passed legislation to fund the rest of the department, setting ICE and Border Patrol aside.

But House Republicans rejected that plan, arguing that the bill would be caving to Democratic demands to defund the president's immigration agenda.

Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and President Trump eventually coalesced around a plan to fund the entirety of DHS on two parallel tracks.

The first would involve the House passing the Senate DHS bill to immediately reopen the department.

The second involves funding ICE and Border Patrol for the next three years through the budget reconciliation process, which will allow Republicans to approve a bill without support from Senate Democrats.

House leaders had been waiting for the reconciliation process to move forward before bringing up the Senate legislation.

Both chambers took the first step toward crafting the reconciliation package this week, adopting a budget plan that instructs the relevant committees to write legislation to fund the immigration agencies.

Mr.

Trump has said he wants the reconciliation package on his desk by June 1.

Both ICE and Border Patrol received tens of billions of dollars in funding in last year's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, meaning their operations have continued mostly unimpeded during the shutdown.

Law enforcement agents at both agencies have continued to get paid.

The brunt of the funding lapse has thus been felt by other DHS components like the Coast Guard, Transportation Security Administration and Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Adm.

Kevin Lunday, the commandant of the Coast Guard, told CBS News in an exclusive interview that his workforce was "furious" that the impasse had dragged on so long, calling it "incredibly frustrating."
Jaala Brown contributed to this report.