GOP Leaders End 47-Day DHS Shutdown with Split Funding for Florida Borders

Republican congressional leaders announced Wednesday they have reached an agreement to reopen the Department of Homeland Security after a record 47-day funding lapse that has rattled federal workers and tested the limits of the GOP's governing majority.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said in a joint statement that the House will take up a Senate-passed measure to fund most of DHS — excluding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection — through the end of September. Republicans would then pursue a separate, three-year funding package for ICE and CBP through a party-line budget reconciliation bill requiring no Democratic votes.

For Treasure Coast residents, the deal carries real stakes. The region has significant agricultural and farmworker communities in St. Lucie and Indian River counties. Federal immigration enforcement operations under DHS have directly touched families throughout the region. Border security funding and staffing levels at federal agencies affect both enforcement activity and the federal workers who live here.

The agreement resurrects a plan House Republicans had already rejected just days earlier, when the chamber instead passed a 60-day short-term funding bill that stalled in the Senate. Johnson had previously called a similar bipartisan arrangement a "joke." President Trump last week told reporters, "I think any deal they make, I'm pretty much not happy with it." By Wednesday morning, Trump appeared to soften, posting on social media that he wants a reconciliation-based bill to fund ICE on his desk by June 1.

Despite the 47-day shutdown, ICE operations have been minimally disrupted because Congress approved $75 billion for the agency through a separate reconciliation bill last year, officials said.

Democrats said the partial deal aligned with their position after an ICE shooting in Minneapolis, but noted it includes none of their policy demands, such as requiring judicial warrants for home entries. "For days, Republican divisions derailed a bipartisan agreement, making American families pay the price for their dysfunction," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement.

The fastest path to reopening DHS would be unanimous consent — a procedural maneuver that bypasses formal votes but can be blocked by a single objecting member. If any one lawmaker objects while Congress is on its current two-week recess, a full floor vote would be delayed until members return to Washington.

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