Trump signs bill ending 76-day US homeland security shutdown

Trump signs bill ending 76-day US homeland security shutdown

The spending bill reopens the Department of Homeland Security but leaves ICE and parts of CBP unfunded, ending a months-long fight over immigration enforcement.

President Donald Trump has signed a spending bill that officially ends the 76-day partial government shutdown that had disrupted airport operations across the United States. According to the BBC report in the packet, the House had already approved a Senate-passed bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, clearing the way for Trump to sign it and reopen the department's routine funding.

The bill matters because DHS runs everything from airport security to immigration enforcement. When its regular funding lapsed, security officers went unpaid and airports were hit with long lines and operational chaos. The source says the shutdown caused chaos in airports across the US for weeks, which means the political fight over funding had begun to have direct, visible consequences for ordinary travelers.

The compromise was only partial. The law reopens DHS, but it does not include funds for Immigration and Customs Enforcement or parts of Customs and Border Protection. That leaves the core immigration fight unresolved. Democrats had refused to fund ICE and CBP, arguing that the agencies should be reformed after two deadly shootings in Minnesota involving federal immigration officers. Republicans rejected that demand and insisted on full funding, producing the stalemate that led to the shutdown in the first place.

The political drama inside Congress was as important as the shutdown itself. House Speaker Mike Johnson resisted bringing the Senate-passed bill to a vote for weeks, calling it inadequate and insisting that immigration enforcement be fully funded. He eventually relented, saying after the vote that TSA lines would not continue and that workers would get their paychecks. Democratic Senator Patty Murray, meanwhile, argued that Johnson had extended the shutdown for no reason at all and noted that the Senate had unanimously passed the same bill weeks earlier.

The impact on the broader homeland security system went beyond airport queues. The BBC said the Department of Homeland Security had continued to run without routine funds since February 14, leading to major disruptions and hours-long wait times at airports. In March, Trump signed an executive order to pay Transportation Security Administration agents, who are considered essential workers and normally have to work during shutdowns without pay. The administration also warned that emergency DHS funds were running low.

Even with the shutdown now ended, the politics remain live. Congressional Republicans are still trying to approve up to $70 billion in funding for ICE and CBP for the rest of Trump's term, while Democrats continue to push for oversight and limits on enforcement. So the bill that ended the shutdown did not settle the broader fight. It only stopped the immediate damage while leaving the next budget battle waiting in the wings.

The unresolved piece is the immigration funding fight, which means the shutdown ended without a full policy settlement. That matters because the agencies at the center of the dispute still sit at the heart of Trump's border agenda. The bill stopped the immediate pain, but it left the broader argument intact for the next round of budgeting and pressure.