By Sarah Ferris, Manu Raju, Annie Grayer, Lauren Fox, CNN
(CNN) — Congress voted to reopen key parts of the Department of Homeland Security — including the Transportation Security Administration — Thursday after weeks of GOP infighting that prolonged a record shutdown of the critical agency.
The bill to fund the department, which has gone unfunded for 75 days, now goes to President Donald Trump for his signature.
House GOP leaders conceded in a weeks-long DHS funding fight in a major retreat by Speaker Mike Johnson as he faced a growing revolt from centrists in his party, multiple sources told CNN. The House abruptly passed the package — which includes no money for federal immigration enforcement, in a major win for Democrats — by a voice vote Thursday afternoon.
The move brings an end to a historic shutdown that led to long lines at airports across the country and comes just before paychecks were about to stall out once again for DHS employees. The Trump administration had warned the department would run out of emergency funds that had been tapped to pay staffers impacted by the shutdown.
It caps weeks of drama on Capitol Hill, with Republicans choosing not to take a recorded vote on the measure that has sharply divided their party. Some House Republicans had been adamant that House GOP leaders should not cave, though leadership argued that their members took a key step a day earlier toward unlocking immigration enforcement money — which paves the way to end the funding impasse over the rest of DHS.
“I think it’s asinine that we’re funding the government this way,” Rep. Chip Roy of Texas said just before the vote.
And it’s not the end of the drama for Congress this week. GOP leaders also need to convince those same disgruntled members to back another unpopular bill — a short-term extension of government warrantless foreign survillence powers. The dueling issues of spending and spy powers have underscored that Johnson and his GOP have effectively lost their ability to govern in a House rife with divisions and infighting.
For nearly a month, Johnson has refused to pass that same partial funding measure already passed by the Senate because of members like Roy. House Republicans broadly detest the Senate’s partial DHS funding bill, which they fear sets a precedent that Democrats can exploit in future funding fights.
Even Florida Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a senior spending leader who rarely picks fights with his own party, was firm that the House should not allow Senate Democrats to decide simply not to fund one piece of a department outside of the annual spending process.
“The Senate is more concerned about preserving the filibuster than they are about preserving the Constitution. The filibuster is not in the Constitution. The appropriations bills are,” he said, also noting that it is “really really dangerous” that DHS remains shut down.
Many in the House GOP take specific issue with one aspect of the bill: it includes language that specifically zeroes out money for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which many Republicans fear sets them up for primary challenges at home, facing attacks that they defunded ICE. (Johnson has privately sought to tweak the language, but has run i