Congress has five days to pass a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security and its disaster response programs, but all signs are pointing to another partial shutdown starting Saturday.
Lawmakers are burning through the two-week funding patch they passed earlier this month, and so far, they have not made any progress in negotiating a new bill that would keep the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Transportation Security Administration, the Coast Guard and other DHS agencies functioning past Friday’s deadline.
Democrats and Republicans remain at a stalemate over immigration enforcement reforms. A deal could ease passage of a new Homeland Security appropriations bill, but GOP leaders have rejected the list of 10 reforms Democrats proposed last week, and the Democrats have not budged since.
The impasse threatens to leave FEMA with a dwindling reserve of disaster recovery funding. Failure to pass a renegotiated fiscal 2026 Homeland Security bill would also delay the enactment of language that appropriators approved on a bipartisan basis to bolster FEMA’s disaster aid and mitigation programs.
The House Appropriations Committee, led by Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.), has scheduled a hearing Wednesday on “potential DHS shutdown impacts.”
Members will hear from a high-ranking FEMA official, as well as the leaders of other DHS subagencies, including the Coast Guard and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
“We’ve got a number of weather-related disasters in this country that are going to require the able attention of FEMA,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said last week. “A lot of important agencies won’t go funded if [Democrats] remain in this posture of resisting anything that doesn’t give them all of their demands.”
Some senior Democratic appropriators suggested last week that they may introduce a narrower Homeland Security funding bill in the coming days to fund FEMA and other DHS subagencies while the immigration reform negotiations continue.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), ranking member on the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement Thursday that she is in favor of funding those bureaus “separately” in order to “avoid any disruption to public services or missed paychecks for federal workers.”
It’s not clear whether that approach would gain any traction. Republicans want to pass a full-year spending bill that would fund immigration enforcement efforts. Democrats will want to use funding for the other DHS agencies as leverage in the immigration talks.
Thune said he could release another stopgap funding bill for DHS as soon as Monday. Democratic leaders already signaling they would oppose it.
“Either they’re going to agree to dramatically reform the way in which ICE and other immigration enforcement agencies are conducting themselves so that they’re behaving like every other law enforcement agency in the country, or they’re making the explicit decision to shut down the Coast Guard, shut down FEMA and shut down TSA, and that would be very unfortunate,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Sunday on CNN.
FEMA would continue most of its normal disaster aid operations during a DHS shutdown, but it could be forced to begin restricting recovery reimbursements to states without a fresh infusion of cash from Congress. The disaster relief fund had roughly $7 billion remaining at the end of January.
The Homeland Security funding bill awaiting action includes $26.4 billion for the disaster relief fund and hundreds of millions more dollars for the National Flood Insurance Program, which was recently reauthorized through September.
The spending measure contains language to prevent the administration from delaying disaster payments to states and to make the reimbursement process more transparent.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are signaling that a lapse in DHS funding is nearly guaranteed starting Saturday. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) said Sunday on Fox News that he “absolutely would expect that it’s going to shut down.”
Schedule: The House Appropriations hearing is Wednesday, Feb. 11, at 10 a.m. in 2362-A Rayburn and via webcast.
Witnesses:
- Keith Turi, acting associate administrator at FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery.
- Thomas Allan, acting vice commandant of the Coast Guard.
- Madhu Gottumukkala, acting director of CISA.
- Ha Nguyen McNeill, acting administrator at TSA.
- Matthew Quinn, deputy director at the Secret Service.
