Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks during a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 28, 2026. Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray stands in the center and Hawaii Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz stands at right. (Photo: Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON – U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson wants to make changes to a Senate-passed bill that would end the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, further delaying funding and extending an impasse that began in mid-February.
The seizure could again interrupt paychecks for employees of the Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, both of which are part of DHS. Massive backlogs at airline security lines caused TSA officers to swoop in March he went without pay for weeks until the administration moved to reprogram the funds.
Johnson, R-La., chose not to negotiate potential amendments to the funding bill with Senate Democrats, who will be needed to introduce it if the House makes changes.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said during a Tuesday afternoon news conference that the bill stuck in the House “does not require amendment.”
“They were just stuck. So they came up with the idea, ‘We need some technical changes,'” he said. “Suspending national security because of technical changes? That’s absurd. They can pass the law now.”
Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, said in a brief interview that she was “stunned” by Johnson’s comments.
During the press conference, she added that she had “no idea what technical changes they expect.”
The House did not vote on DHS funding
The Senate unanimously passed a bill to fund the enormous majority of the Department of Homeland Security at the end of March and again in early April. Johnson did not put it to a vote in the House of Representatives, preventing it from becoming law.
The legislation does not include funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the Border Patrol – a compromise brokered after Republicans and Democrats failed to broker an agreement on protective barriers for immigration enforcement operations.
Republicans plan to provide more than $70 billion in additional spending for ICE and the Border Patrol in a bipartisan budget reconciliation bill they hope to pass in the coming weeks.
Johnson said last week he believes “the order is important” when each of the two bills becomes law. But time is running out for tens of thousands of federal workers who will once again lose their paychecks.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement that the executive order President Donald Trump signed earlier this month ordering all DHS workers to be paid despite funding lapses could only stretch further.
“If I continue on this path in the first week of May, that money will be gone,” Mullin said. “My salary at DHS is just over $1.6 billion every two weeks, so the money goes extremely quickly, and when it does, there are no emergency funds left.”
“We need to provide funding to these agencies.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he is working with House GOP leaders to “massage” the DHS funding bill in hopes that it will soon become law.
“I’m very sorry,” he said. “We talked last night and he has to deal with his challenges there. We have to deal with our challenges here. But either way, we have to provide funding to these agencies.”
The disagreement between House Republicans and their GOP counterparts in the Senate over when to fund DHS is just one of several challenges party leaders are trying to address this week.
“We’re trying to coordinate strategy with the House as best we can. But, you know, it’s a unique situation. We have very tight margins and people with really strong opinions,” Thune said. “So I think it’s obviously going to take a lot of engagement from the White House to address some of these issues. But we’re trying as hard as we can to get all of these issues across the finish line and ultimately to the president’s desk.”
Republican Party leaders will need the support of their members, as well as at least some Democrats, to submit key legislation, including the DHS funding bill, to Trump.
But as of noon Tuesday, it did not appear that they had contacted key negotiators about possible changes to the Senate-passed budget bill.
Next week is a break
Alabama Republican Sen. Katie Britt, chairwoman of the DHS funding subcommittee, said she didn’t know what changes House GOP leaders wanted to make.
“I’m not aware of it. All I know is that we have to find a way forward,” she said. “And no one should leave here, much less fly (for congressional delegation trips) until we do it.”
Both houses of Congress are scheduled to leave for a week-long recess on Thursday.
Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, the highest-ranking member of the DHS funding panel, said House Republicans have not contacted him or his staff.
“I don’t know why I’m making this more complicated than it needs to be,” he said. “Our bill, which passed the Senate with a vote of 100 to zero, would easily pass the House.”
