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Senate Majority Leader Sen. John Thune, R-S.D. spoke to reporters on Tuesday during a news briefing following a weekly Senate Republican policy luncheon at the Capitol. Alex Wong/Getty Images North America hide caption
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Alex Wong/Getty Images North America
The Senate voted overnight to fund large swaths of the Department of Homeland Security after a 42-day standoff over immigration enforcement tactics. The bill does not include funding for the agency's main immigration enforcement operations.
The legislation now goes to the House for a vote.
The DHS funding lapse forced tens of thousands of employees to work without pay - or quit– and resulted in long waits at some airports amid peak spring break travel.
Democrats have refused to support funding for DHS over objections to immigration enforcement tactics used by the agency's officers. Democrats insisted on reforms to the agency after federal officers killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.
The latest package allowed Democrats to fund operations like the Transportation Safety Administration, or TSA, and emergency response divisions, without backing down from those demands.
But some Democrats have warned that any agreement diminishes their leverage.
The department has been operating without regular appropriations for more than a month. But some divisions, like Immigration and Customs Enforcement, have continued to function thanks to about $75 billion provided by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Others, including TSA, have relied workers who are going without pay.
Ha Nguyen McNeil, the TSA acting administrator, told lawmakers at a hearing on Wednesday that absences are as high as 40 percent in some airports and more than 480 TSA officers have quit during the shutdown.
"We are really concerned about our security posture and what the long term impacts of this shutdown is going to have on the workforce and our ability to carry out this mission," McNeil said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters earlier in the day on Thursday that House Republicans have not been in favor of breaking up the funding, calling it "shameful" to fail to fund the agency.
It is unclear how the House will respond to the agreement.
