Link: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/01/republicans-dhs-funding-partial-shutdown

There will no doubt be shenanigans as this proposal eventually moves forward. Must be nice to get a paid two-week Easter break in a secular country.

An end to the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may be in sight, after Congress’s Republican leaders on Wednesday agreed to advance legislation that would fund most of the agency’s operations, with the exception of those involved in immigration enforcement.

The pact may conclude the longest such funding lapse in US history, which last month caused security lines to stretch for hours at some airports as employees of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), a subagency of DHS, quit their jobs or called out of work after going weeks without pay.

Wait times eased earlier this week, after Donald Trump signed an order for TSA employees to receive paychecks.

Let's just pause here and remember that Trump does not have the power to rule by diktat, but here we are. If that word looks foreign, change the "k" to a "c," and ... er, it looks awfully familiar.

In a joint statement, Mike Johnson, House speaker, and John Thune, Senate majority leader, said they would move to pass a measure, approved by the Senate unanimously last week, which would fund DHS while excluding money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and parts of Customs and Border Protection.

They would also abandon an attempt pushed by House Republicans to fund all of the DHS for 60 days, which Senate Democrats vowed to block with a filibuster.

So… the D’s compromised again, and the R’s are still refusing to comply with the law as it stands.

Meanwhile, the only thing not being funded is the department that’s already being funded via alternative means.

I still fail to understand why people think the two parties are substantially different. Both are operating for the same pool of donor cash and will adhere to those wishes.

They're literally keeping Immigration without funding but getting airports up and running again. What exactly are you hardlining against? The concept of plane travel?

We can just keep the ICE without funding forever, so I'm cool with this as long as there are no shenanigans around the time of the roll call.

ICE already has funding. So the only thing not getting funding is ACTUAL immigration employees. I’m pretty sure Republicans are fine with that.

Funding is the only leverage Democrats have over the executive at this point to get them to honor the law as it stands and NOT shove a bunch of fascist changes into the new omnibus funding bill. They’ve now effectively lost that leverage, so now it’s just a case of the Republicans waiting until something happens that forces the Democrats to approve the big bill in order to not tank in the elections.

The entirety of DHS was a Nazi tactic. We protect the "homeland." Yeah, well, we'd been doing that just fine until 9/11, and how that failure of intelligence happened is a concern. But it was used as an excuse by the party of small government and individual freedoms to grossly inflate the power of the state at the expense of personal freedoms.

And people voted for it again in 2004.

They caved and managed to get none of the reforms at ICE that they've spent weeks trying to be vocal about.

No judicial warrants, no body cams, no justice for two murdered Americans. Its wild that they've done this twice - here, and with the ACA subsidies.

I dont understand why they bother to fight if they're not even going to take the hit and take a base.

I would rather they got no funding rather than their promises in exchange for conditional funding and cameras.

I fail to understand why people think a bunch of rational corporatists who primarily want economic stability and who's party contains a number of very progressive voices, some of them QUITE loud and influential are substantially the SAME as a bunch of INSANE RELIGIOUS MANIACS who think the End Times are coming and are literally stripping rights away from trans people, non-white people and women as fast as they can while looting the world around them as quickly as possible.

I'm so fed up with it. Are you guys self destructively nuts? Your apathy and "both sides are the samisms" have SUBSTANTIALLY enabled our slide into fascism. I don't care if you disagree. I hold you partially responsible and I'm not gonna stay quiet about it,

I grew up around the donor class and they are NOT a monolith. Yeah, they're shitty, out of touch and their wealth makes them crazy, but some of them are just VERY problematic while others are FUCKING NUTS. They ARE NOT THE SAME. I promise you. I know them very well, some of them personally.

You know what? I'm wrong, because I DO understand. The right wing media LOVE to say things they know will trickle down to people like you and get you to stay disengaged and not voting. The defeatist attitude and lazy thinking lead to a self sabotaging apathy that helps the Overton window get dragged further right. You're not going to get anything kinder from me than a "Shame on you, sir or madam, for falling for it and DOUBLE shame on you for amplifying it."

so tl:dr; STFU cantchangemymind.

I'd engage with you, but if your premise is a homeless hippie with decades in journalism shilling for Nazis is your starting point, this is going to be exhausting.

It's not and we're not enemies and I've seen your username around and remember your situation. I'm sorta sorry for getting bombastic, but I also have REALLY FUCKING strong feelings about this. I don't think you're shilling for Nazis, I think you're playing right into their hands when you say stuff like that and it just triggers the fuck out of me. Sorry. Mostly sorry.

Let's hang out at Burn. I'll share my booze with you, maybe you'll forgive me.

I've seen you before as well and was frankly a bit shocked at the vitriol. You bring the booze, I'll bring the weed, and maybe we can dance it off. One thing I will suggest without irony is not using ALL CAPS for emphasis.

It gets the point across SO WELL though. XD

I wrote headlines for a couple of decades. You end up with things like "200k killed in tsunami." It gets dark quickly.