US President Donald Trump signed a bill on Thursday to fund Department of Homeland Security agencies, bringing to an end a partial department shutdown that had hindered operations for more than two months.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives cleared the bipartisan legislation by voice vote just hours before a critical deadline, and the president signed it into law shortly thereafter.
Under the legislation, agencies including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration and the Secret Service will resume normal funding. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol — two controversial agencies at the center of the partisan fight that triggered the shutdown — are excluded from the deal.
Democrats had refused to support funding for immigration enforcement without new restrictions on tactics such as raids in sensitive locations and the use of masks by ICE agents. Opposition to funding the two bodies intensified after the killing of two people in Minnesota by federal agents earlier this year.
Representative Chip Roy, a key Texas Republican, said isolating the immigration-related money was “offensive to the men and women who serve in ICE and Border Patrol, and are serving this country every single 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 damn time.”
Edited by: Rana Taha, Zac Crellin
