The United States Congress on Thursday finally approved funding for Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies, ending a partial shutdown of the department that had hampered operations for more than two months.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives approved the bipartisan legislation by voice vote just hours before the key deadline.
Having already been passed by the Senate, it will now be sent to President Donald Trump to be signed into law, securing funding for key DHS agencies through the end of the fiscal year on September 30.
What is included in the passed DHS funding bill?
Under the law, agencies including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration and the Secret Service will resume normal funding.
But Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol — the two controversial agencies at the center of the partisan fight that triggered the shutdown — are left out of the deal.
Democrats had refused to support funding for immigration enforcement without new restrictions on tactics such as raids at sensitive locations and the use of masks by ICE agents. Democratic resistance to funding both bodies intensified after the killings of two people by federal agents in Minnesota earlier this year.
Representative Chip Roy of Texas, a prominent Republican, said that setting aside immigration-related funding was “an insult to the men and women who serve in ICE and Border Patrol, and are serving this country every day.”
Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, who proposed the bill more than 70 days ago, said: “It’s about time.”
Edited by: Rana Taha