Congress and President Trump have made three separate attempts to direct government money toward the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) amid a funding lapse that has lasted 43 days with no end in sight. Funding toward DHS ceased after Senate Democrats blocked a bill to keep the department running. They called for sweeping reforms at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in response to the agency’s tactics and its execution of Trump’s deportation agenda. Those calls intensified after two U.S. citizens were killed during federal immigration operations in Minneapolis in January. The situation has generated tensions and debates about resource allocation and national security policies.

President Trump issued a presidential memorandum to compensate Transportation and Security Administration (TSA) officers working without pay. The president directed Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, in coordination with the Office of Management and Budget, to send funds “that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations” to pay TSA employees with the pay and benefits “that would have accrued” if the shutdown hadn’t taken place. “Once regular funding for TSA has been restored, every effort should be made, as authorized by law, to adjust applicable funding accounts within DHS to ensure the continuation of DHS operations and activities consistent with planned expenditures prior to the lapse,” Trump wrote. This measure seeks to mitigate the impact of the shutdown on workers and ensure the continuity of security operations at airports.

The pay would go toward an agency that has seen around 500 employees quit since the shutdown began. Call-outs and resignations have caused security checkpoints to shut down at airports across the country, causing long lines, flight delays and cancellations. Trump’s order would only go toward TSA, with the pay likely alleviating travelers and airlines facing disruptions caused by the shutdown. Other agencies within DHS, including FEMA and the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), have gone on without funding since mid-February. This disparity in funding underscores the complexities and challenges of the government shutdown in the provision of essential services.

The Senate early Friday morning passed with unanimous consent a bill that would fund most of DHS, including FEMA and the USCG, but excluding ICE and the U.S. Border Patrol. House Republicans rejected the bill, with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) denouncing the bill as a “gambit” and a “joke.” Conservatives in the House fumed over the bill, with House Freedom Caucus members pressuring their Republican colleagues to reject it. The Senate bill put Johnson at odds with his counterpart in the Senate, Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.C.), but Johnson said Thune was not the “engineer of this” and cast sole blame on Senate Democrats. “I’m quite convinced that it can’t be that every Senate Republican read the language of this bill,” Johnson said at a press conference Friday. This situation reflects the political divisions and challenges in reaching agreements in Congress.

Later in the day, the House passed a GOP continuing resolution (CR) to fund all of DHS after a 213-203 vote with the support of three centrist Democrats: Reps. Don Davis (D-N.C.), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) and Henry Cuellar (D-Texas). The bill is the fourth House attempt to fund the whole department. The CR would keep DHS fully funded through May 22, but it is not expected to survive past the Senate. Republican leaders have said the bill could pass through the Senate with unanimous consent, but Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), said in a statement that a bill “that locks in the status quo is dead on arrival in the Senate, and Republicans know it.” This uncertainty about the future of DHS funding prolongs the instability and the impact of the government shutdown on national security operations.