The House adopted a Senate-approved budget resolution Wednesday in a 215-211 party-line vote, opening the fast-track reconciliation process that would fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection for the remainder of the Trump administration without needing Democratic votes in the Senate. Rep. Kevin Kiley of California, a Republican-turned-independent, voted present.
The resolution directs the committees overseeing ICE and CBP to draft legislation delivering approximately $70 billion to the agencies — enough, Republican leaders said, to sustain immigration enforcement operations through 2029. The bill is not an appropriation; it authorizes the process of writing one. A final reconciliation bill must still pass both chambers. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the Senate aims to bring that bill to the floor the week of May 11, after Congress returns from a one-week recess.
The vote came after a chaotic day in which a handful of conservative Republicans held open the procedural vote for more than five hours, demanding changes to the farm bill before relenting. Democrats argued ICE and CBP already had unspent funding from last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill appropriation and did not need $70 billion more. Republicans countered the agencies needed long-term certainty to sustain deportation operations.
The budget resolution vote was the prerequisite Johnson had insisted upon before agreeing to send the Senate’s partial DHS funding bill to Trump’s desk — which he did the following day.
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