The White House pressed the House of Representatives on Tuesday to immediately pass a stalled bipartisan spending measure that would reopen the Department of Homeland Security, as the agency’s partial shutdown entered its tenth week with no resolution in sight.
The push came through a formal memo from the White House budget office demanding “immediate passage” of a Senate-approved DHS funding bill that has sat untouched in the House for nearly a month. The memo rebuked Speaker Mike Johnson, who recently suggested modifying the bill — a position the White House rejected by insisting the House adopt it exactly as written.
Rep. William Timmons, whose 4th Congressional District covers Spartanburg and Greenville, has been among the most vocal House Republicans on the issue. Speaking on national television Monday, Timmons tied the funding standoff to a Saturday night shooting outside the Washington Hilton, where the president and officials had gathered for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. A gunman injured a Secret Service agent before being taken into custody. Timmons said House Republicans are developing a plan to fund ICE and all of DHS for three years without waiting for Democratic support.
The memo also urged the House to adopt an immigration enforcement budget framework authored by South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. Graham’s resolution, passed by the Senate after a marathon amendment session, creates a reconciliation path for a $70 billion multiyear fund for ICE and Border Patrol — letting those appropriations bypass a Democratic filibuster and reach the president’s desk by his June 1 deadline.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin has warned the department will exhaust salary funds in the first week of May, threatening paychecks for more than 100,000 workers including TSA agents, Coast Guard personnel, and CISA cybersecurity staff. House Republican leaders canceled floor votes Tuesday afternoon after failing to secure enough support for the budget framework. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the lapse a national emergency and said every member of Congress must put country over party.
