March 27, 2026 10:28 AM UTC

Senate Passes DHS Funding Bill, But House Republicans Won't Budge

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• by: Colorado Pols

Airport security lines for your Spring Break vacation are close to getting shorter…but not if House Republicans have anything to say about it!

As The Washington Post reports:

The Senate voted early Friday morning to fund much of the Department of Homeland Security, taking a step to reopen large parts of an agency that has been partially shut down for more than a month, leading to lengthy security delays at some airports.

The House still needs to pass the bill before President Donald Trump can sign it into law.

That could happen as early as Friday, but the path forward in the House is not yet clear. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) did not commit Friday to supporting the Senate’s bill, and advancing the measure to the House floor may prove logistically challenging. [Pols emphasis]

House Republicans, as usual, seem to be completely unprepared to do anything useful. Right-wing members — including Trump lackies like Rep. Gabe Evans (R-Ft. Lupton) — are insisting that any such legislation also include passage of President Trump’s “SAVE Act” legislation to make it harder for people to vote. That legislation is a non-starter in the Senate.

House conservatives may block the chamber’s leaders from moving the legislation the traditional way, through the House Rules Committee — as they have insisted that the Senate pass a GOP voting bill known as the Save America Act before other legislation can advance. But, on Thursdays through Sundays, House rules also bar the chamber from bypassing the committee with a procedure that allows legislation to pass with a two-thirds vote…

…Johnson told reporters Friday morning that the chamber wants to end the DHS shutdown as quickly as possible, but he also raised concerns about the lack of funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol in the deal.

The Senate bill would fund the Transportation Security Administration and the rest of DHS except for ICE and CBP. The Senate passed it by voice vote with only a handful of senators in the chamber.

The House is also scheduled to recess for two weeks, and it’s not clear that Republicans could even herd their own cats in time to hold a vote should they come to some agreement:

And then there’s Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Windsor), who is characteristically caught up on some other point that we can’t even begin to explain:

The good news for Coloradans is that Denver International Airport has largely been shielded from long TSA lines because of its updated security screening apparatus. Unfortunately for travelers, you’re still going to have to figure out how to get back to Denver without standing in line for hours.