The Senate cleared the way early on Thursday for the House of Representatives to pass a Department of Homeland Security funding bill through Sept. 30 that was approved by the Senate late last week and would end a nearly seven-week partial shutdown.
The measure provides no additional funding for immigration law enforcement activities that already are robustly funded.
It was unclear whether the House would quickly take up the legislation at a session that is scheduled for 8:30 a.m.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaking to a near-empty chamber, cleared the way for progress on ending the DHS funding fight by killing a 60-day, stopgap bill that had been passed by the House but had no chance of getting enough support to pass the Senate.
The Senate ignored that bill on Friday and began a recess that telegraphed its opposition to the measure.
Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., announced a plan Wednesday to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security as part of a two-step process. The agreement puts the leaders on the same page for ending the impasse after they pursued separate plans that resulted in Congress leaving Washington last week without a fix.
Johnson and Thune announced a return to the bipartisan Senate plan worked out with Democrats that funds most of the department, with the exception of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol. Republicans would then try later to fund those agencies on their own through party-line spending legislation that could take months to finish.
Neither outcome is guaranteed, and the strategy could potentially still face opposition from the GOP's own ranks even though President Donald Trump has given his support.
"We appreciate and share the President's determination to once and for all bring an end to the Democrat DHS shutdown," said Johnson, R-La., and Thune, R-S.D.
House Republicans refused to go along with the Senate plan last week excluding ICE and Border Patrol, instead changing the bill to fund all of DHS for 60 days.
The DHS shutdown reached its 47th day on Wednesday.
The two top Republicans hope to win over skeptical GOP colleagues, but the most conservative lawmakers are likely to seek full funding for all of Trump's immigration and deportation operations.
"Let's make this simple: caving to Democrats and not paying CBP and ICE is agreeing to defund Law Enforcement and leaving our borders wide open again," Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., posted on X. "If that's the vote, I'm a NO."
Meanwhile, the narrow budget package that Trump wants prepared for later this year is expected to fund ICE and Border Patrol through the remainder of Trump's term, as a way to try to ensure those agencies are no longer at risk from Democrats objecting to the president's immigration enforcement agenda.
Trump said he wants that legislation on his desk by June 1.
"We are going to work as fast, and as focused, as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE Agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won't be able to stop us," Trump said.
House Democrat leader Hakeem Jeffries released a statement after Johnson and Thune sent out their announcement, saying, "It's time to pay TSA agents, end the airport chaos and fully fund every part of the Department of Homeland Security that does not relate to Donald Trump's violent mass deportation machine."
The vast majority of Homeland Security workers continue to report to work during the shutdown, but many thousands have been going without pay. That led to more Transportation Security Administration agents calling out from work, causing frustrating security lines at some of the nation's biggest airports.
Those bottlenecks appeared to be clearing this week as agents began receiving backpay, per an executive order from Trump.
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