Much Ado About Nothing
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) have come to a deal to end the 47-day partial government shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security by adopting a Senate-passed measure that funds the entire department through Sept. 30 except for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Border Patrol — which already had funding via the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was a budget reconciliation bill.
Instead, under the deal, those two agencies will simply have their additional funding reupped via another budget reconciliation bill to be passed later.
In announcing the deal on X.com on April 1, Speaker Johnson stated, “In the coming days, Republicans in the Senate and House will be following through on the President’s directive by fully funding the entire Department of Homeland Security on two parallel tracks: through the appropriations process and through the reconciliation process.”
Johnson noted that the Senate was already well underway with the next reconciliation bill: “We appreciate that Senator Graham and the Senate Budget Committee have already initiated the process of developing a budget resolution that will ensure border security and immigration enforcement will be funded for the balance of the Trump Administration and insulated from future attempts by the Democrats to defund those agencies.”
Johnson also lamented the turn the shutdown had taken, with Congressional Democrats blocking full funding for the Department We operated under a belief that while our country is in the midst of an international armed conflict, Democrats might finally come to their senses and understand that defunding our homeland security agencies is beyond reckless and very dangerous. While we hoped they would accept the 60-day CR to fund the Department entirely so that bipartisan negotiations could continue, it is now abundantly clear that Democrats place allegiance to their radical left-wing base above all else — including their own power of the purse — which means open borders and protecting criminal illegal aliens. That is not acceptable to Republicans in Congress, nor is it to the American people.”
Johnson added, “We cannot allow Democrats to any longer put the safety of the American public at risk through their open border policies, so we are taking that off the table. In following this two-track approach, the Republican Congress will fully reopen the Department, make sure all federal workers are paid, and specifically fund immigration enforcement and border security for the next three years so that those law-enforcement activities can continue uninhibited. In return, Democrats will once again demonstrate to the American people their support for open borders and keeping criminal illegal immigrants in America.”
Better than nothing.
At the end of the day, none of Democrats’ original demands — judicial warrants for deportations, bars on ICE officers wearing masks, a use of force standard or a ban on alleged racial profiling — were included in the Senate bill that will now become law.
The only concession Congressional Democrats got for the longest government shutdown in history was that they didn’t have to vote for ICE and U.S. Border Patrol funding. That’s it.
That’s all they wanted in the end, because the Senate passed that bill unanimously.
All so Democratic leaders could posture for their radical base and, most specifically, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer could (likely failingly) fend off primary attempts in 2028 by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
The recent betting on Kalshi.com shows Ocasio-Cortez leading with a 60 percent chance of ousting Schumer in a primary should she run, with Schumer’s numbers actually worsening through the two recent government shutdowns, the two longest in history.
Probably because they didn’t accomplish a damned thing.
Robert Romano is the Executive Director of Americans for Limited Government.
