The House advanced Republicans’ multi-billion dollar budget framework to fund federal immigration enforcement for the next three years, overcoming a key procedural step to fulfill one of President Donald Trump’s top priorities for the rest of his term.
Lawmakers narrowly advanced the budget resolution in a mostly party-line vote on Wednesday after hours of negotiations.
The resolution unlocks the reconciliation process, allowing congressional committees to begin drafting the larger framework. All four members of Utah’s House delegation voted in favor of the resolution.
“(Democrats are) forcing us to go at it alone, when for decades longer than that, Republicans and Democrats have always been able to come together and support a Homeland Security bill,” Rep. Blake Moore, R-Utah, said on the House floor on Wednesday. “But they refuse to support ICE and CBP. ... This is not a serious way to govern. It is irresponsible. It is dangerous.”
The bill’s passage — which took more than five hours on the floor due to internal GOP disagreements on other legislation — is only the first step toward funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Customs and Border Patrol.
Under the budget instructions, both the Judiciary and the Homeland Security committees must write legislation that allocates up to $140 billion for immigration funding.
Senate Republican leaders say they expect the final cost to be much lower, possibly around $70 billion total.
The budget resolution is part of a two-track proposal making its way through Congress to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which has been shut down for more than two months due to Democratic opposition.
The reconciliation package will solely fund CBP and ICE while lawmakers will also work toward passing a separate funding bill to fund the rest of the department through the end of September.
The budget blueprint instructs committees to have their portions finished and submitted to the Budget Committee by May 15, two weeks ahead of President Donald Trump’s deadline of June 1.
Meanwhile, it remains an open question when Republicans in the House will pass the second bill to reopen the rest of DHS — especially as department officials have warned the Trump administration will no longer have funds available to pay its employees. The Senate passed that bill roughly three weeks ago, but House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has yet to put it on the House floor for a vote due to opposition from his conservative flank.
House conservatives in the Freedom Caucus have repeatedly said they would reject the funding package because it contains zeros for both ICE and Border Patrol in the legislative text. Those members have argued that funding for DHS and immigration enforcement should all be included under one bill.
“I will not vote for a bill, or support in any way, a bill that has zeros put in there for Border Patrol,” Rep. Andy Harris, chairman of the conservative Freedom Caucus, told reporters last week.
That means DHS could remain shut down until the immigration budget resolution is completed — making it unclear when the department will be reopened. Thune has urged the House to pass the DHS spending bill that excludes immigration funding as soon as possible, a request that was echoed by the White House this week.
Reopening the department is especially crucial, they argued, after an assassination attempt against President Donald Trump over the weekend. The U.S. Secret Service is part of DHS.
Both the House and Senate are scheduled to leave town for a weeklong recess on Thursday, meaning if something isn’t passed before then, the DHS shutdown will drag on into early May.