The White House on Tuesday urged the House to immediately pass a stalled bipartisan spending bill to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, which Republicans have refused to take up since the Senate passed it nearly a month ago.
The request, in a memo sent to members of Congress by the White House budget office, was tantamount to a rebuke of Speaker Mike Johnson, who has delayed action on the measure while the Homeland Security shutdown reaches its 10th week. This comes a day after he suggested he wanted to amend the measure which could further slow its path to enactment.
In the memo, a copy of which was seen by The New York Times, the Trump administration appeared to reject Mr. Johnson’s idea, and called for “immediate passage” of the Senate-passed measure. That bill does not include any funding for immigration enforcement after Democrats refused to support it without restrictions on the tactics and conduct of federal agents, which the GOP would not agree to.
The White House also directed the House to quickly approve a Republican budget blueprint that would pave the way for a filibuster-proof bill that would establish a $70 billion multiyear fund for immigration enforcement, which Republicans see as a key component of ending the shutdown.
The memo, first reported by Punchbowl News, came as the House was gridlocked due to Republican infighting, preventing Mr. Johnson from bringing the budget plan — or any other major policy items scheduled for the week — to the floor. House leaders canceled the planned vote Tuesday afternoon because it was unclear whether they had enough support to clear a key procedural hurdle to bring up many of the bills.
That inaction threatened to prolong the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, even as Mr. Johnson and the Republican majority leader, Senator John Thune of South Dakota, jointly endorsed a two-step plan weeks ago to end it.
On April 1, Mr. Johnson and Mr. Thune vowed to pass a spending bill to fund the department by excluding the agencies that carry out the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. They will then begin work on a separate bill to fund ICE and Border Patrol until the end of Mr. Trump’s second term, using a special budget process known as reconciliation that can prevent a Democratic filibuster.
Mr. Trump supported the plan, and Mr. Thune quickly passed the spending bill, with no objections from either party. House Democrats also said they would support it.
But Mr. Johnson stalled, as many Republicans balked at a measure that failed to fund immigration enforcement, although the administration is paying for those functions through a fund enacted last summer as part of its tax cut and domestic policy legislation. The speaker and other House Republicans have said they will not move forward on a measure to reopen the department until they see progress on a reconciliation bill.
Still, with the House set to leave Washington for a 12-day recess on Thursday, Mr Johnson faces growing pressure from ordinary House members and senators from both parties to end the shutdown.
Mr. Thune has rejected Mr. Johnson’s demand for changes to the plan that they both supported weeks ago, and which has twice passed the Senate but stalled in the House.
“The administration has made it clear that they want and expect this to be passed by the House,” he told reporters Tuesday. “Well, that was 27 days ago.”
The controversy has focused attention on everything from Democrats’ role in forcing the shutdown to internal GOP disputes over how to end it.
“The Department of Homeland Security remains defunded because of the inability of House Republicans and Republicans, the House and the Senate, to work together,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and minority leader.
In its memo, the White House increased the pressure by warning that the administration was running out of money it had used to pay Homeland Security employees during the shutdown at Mr. Trump’s direction.
It reads, “The Administration will be unable to pay all DHS personnel beginning in May,” warning that such a default would “wreak havoc on air travel” and force Secret Service agents and the Coast Guard to work without pay.
