WASHINGTON — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Sunday that his colleagues should return early from their spring recess to vote on ending the partial Department of Homeland Security shutdown.
The department has only been partially funded since mid-February, when lawmakers failed to agree on immigration enforcement reforms.
“The first thing that needs to happen is that the House of Representatives under the leadership of Speaker Johnson and Republicans need to bring us back into session so we can actually reopen the Department of Homeland Security, stop creating chaos at airports all across the country and forcing people, including what happened to TSA agents for weeks, to work without pay,” Jeffries, D-N.Y., told ABC News’ “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” on Sunday.
Jeffries noted the Senate has sent a bipartisan bill to the House twice that would fund the DHS except for immigration enforcement and border patrol operations.
“Every single Democrat, every single Republican in the Senate supports that legislation,” he said. “House Democrats support that legislation.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., last commented on X about DHS funding in a joint statement with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., on Wednesday when he wrote: “In the coming days, Republicans in the Senate and House will be following through on the President’s directive by fully funding the entire Department of Homeland Security on two parallel tracks: through the appropriations process and through the reconciliation process.”
Before the Easter recess, the Senate unanimously approved a path for DHS funding that included money for the Transportation Security Administration, U.S. Coast Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency, but not Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.
The House rejected the bill and instead passed separate legislation to fund the entire department through May 22. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the House bill was “dead on arrival” in the Senate.
On the same day, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to pay TSA workers.
At the end of his second week as Homeland Security Secretary on Friday, Markwayne Mullin posted a short video on X saying he has spent most of his time in the role “working with members in the House and the Senate and the White House … trying to get our great employees at DHS paid.”
He accused Democrats of holding DHS employees “hostage” and said the shutdown, then in its 49th day was putting the country’s security at risk.
Monday marks the 52nd day of the shutdown.
Democrats in both congressional chambers have demanded reforms for immigration enforcement following federal agents’ shooting deaths of two American citizens in Minneapolis in January.
Lawmakers have been on spring recess since March 30 and are not scheduled to return to Washington until April 13.
