House GOP Seeks to Ensure Border Agents Paid If Shutdown Occurs

Bracing for a likely government shutdown on Sunday, House Republicans are seeking to ensure that Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are paid in the event a shutdown occurs.

The Homeland Heroes Pay Act would ensure that paychecks would continue for “certain, excepted” federal agents even if Congress does not meet the deadline to finalize the homeland security spending bill.

“We cannot allow the brave men and women of CBP and ICE to pay the cost of congressional Democrats’ refusal to pass an appropriations bill with border security measures," Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., said Friday when introducing the measure, according to the Washington Examiner. "This legislation protects the hard-earned paychecks of those working on the front lines of this devastating border crisis in the event of a lapse in government funding.”

The bill would ensure that Customs and Border Protection agents who perform “mission critical functions” at or between any of the Southwest, Northern, and maritime border ports of entry would continue to be paid in the event of a shutdown. Such functions include preventing terrorists, migrants, weapons, illegal contraband, or illicit drugs from entering the United States.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents responsible for immigration enforcement or for conducting investigations into criminal operations, drug trades, or human trafficking would also be covered under the legislation.

During a government shutdown, essential personnel continue working, but their pay is frozen until Congress passes a budget for the next fiscal year.

The Examiner reported that a number of co-sponsors signed onto the bill, including House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement Chairman Clay Higgins, R-La., House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and Reps. Laurel Lee, R-Fla., Dale Strong, R-Ala., Monica De La Cruz, R-Texas, and Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz.

On Friday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s eleventh-hour plan to avert a federal shutdown collapsed as Republican hardliners rejected the spending package, all but guaranteeing a closure. Despite spending cuts to many agencies of nearly 30% and strict border security provisions, the hard-right flank of McCarthy’s slim Republican majority refused to support the bill.

With the Saturday deadline to fund the government fast approaching, the bill’s failure means there are few options left to prevent a shutdown.

The Senate reportedly pushed ahead Friday with its own bipartisan plan to keep the government open, which includes aid for Ukraine and U.S. disaster accounts.

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