Courtesy of JNS. Photo credit: Graeme Sloan/Getty Images
U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) speaks to reporters after passage of a U.S. Department of Homeland Security funding bill at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on April 30, 2026
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump signed H.R. 7147 into law on Thursday, funding most of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security through Sept. 30 and ending a 76-day partial shutdown of the agency.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the legislation unanimously early in the day to fund U.S. agencies, including the Secret Service, Coast Guard, Federal Emergency Management Agency and Transportation Security Administration.
The funding push gained urgency following a shooting at last week’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, which U.S. President Donald Trump attended and where a gunman was subdued and a Secret Service agent was injured. The gunman has said that the president was his target.
The bill excludes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which Republicans plan to fund separately through a budget reconciliation measure that would bypass a Senate filibuster.
Democrats demanded changes in ICE operations after agents killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis before approving any money. After bipartisan negotiations fell apart, senators voted to fund the department except for those two agencies.
Instead, Republicans will try to use a procedure known as reconciliation to bypass a Senate filibuster and fund ICE, as they did to pass Trump’s giant tax and spending law last year.
Nathan Diament, executive director of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, welcomed the passage of the legislation, which includes $300 million for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which funds synagogues among other houses of worship.
“This increase over last year’s funding level is an important and very welcome step,” Diament stated. “While sadly even more funding is needed for Jewish community security, this increased level of funding will surely help. We will continue working with members of Congress and our allies to fund the Nonprofit Security Grant Program at even higher levels in 2027 to meet demand.”
Congress allocated $274.5 million in 2025 for the security grant program.
The bill passed the Senate on a bipartisan basis more than a month ago. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) declined to bring the Senate bill, which funded all of the department but the two agencies, up for a vote in the House.
Johnson relented after the White House warned this week that the department would “soon run out of critical operating funds, placing essential personnel and operations at risk.”
House GOP leaders said earlier this week that the Senate legislation had technical problems that needed to be addressed and therefore could not be brought up for a vote.
The top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), said that the bill could have cleared the chamber weeks ago.
“This irresponsible delay caused substantial harm to federal workers throughout the Department of Homeland Security,” stated DeLauro, who introduced similar legislation in February. “Were it not for Republicans’ refusal to take ‘yes’ for an answer, we could have solved this problem more than 75 days ago.”
But Mike Marinella, spokesman for the House Republicans’ political arm, said the blame rested with the Democrats, even though they were willing to fund all of the department except for ICE and Border Patrol unless changes were made to their operations.
“Radical Democrats left TSA agents, the Coast Guard and Secret Service high and dry just to appease their far-left base and walked away empty-handed,” Marinella stated.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), the only Senate Democrat willing to fund the department and keep the government open without changes to ICE, called the 76-day shutdown “unnecessary and a failure of Congress.”
