STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The longest agency shutdown in U.S. history is over.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
President Trump signed legislation Thursday to fund almost all of the Department of Homeland Security, except for some immigration enforcement. The House passed it yesterday. That was weeks after the Senate did. House Speaker Mike Johnson celebrated an end to the stalemate.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MIKE JOHNSON: The House Republicans are leaving in a great mood, and I don't think you could find a single person who is upset with the results. We got the job done. Sometimes it's slow, but we got it done.
INSKEEP: NPR congressional correspondent Claudia Grisales joins us now. Claudia, good morning.
CLAUDIA GRISALES, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: What about this took 70 days?
GRISALES: Well, you're seeing a politically contentious high-stakes proposal meet head-on with a Congress that's struggling to legislate, especially during an election year. We first saw a breakdown in bipartisan funding talks for DHS in mid-February and then another breakdown for Republicans who could not agree on a way out of a shutdown. The Senate passed a plan five weeks ago to fund the agency, except for some immigration enforcement divisions, as we mentioned.
INSKEEP: Right.
GRISALES: But that could not get through the House. So the White House redirected government funds to pay DHS workers despite questions over the legality of that decision. And now the agency was about to run out of that new money, so the House had to act.
INSKEEP: Oh, well, they had to act. OK. So they were forced to on some level. But really, how did the speaker manage to get a majority here?
GRISALES: Well, Johnson finally reached that deal with the more conservative members of his conference who were holding out to fund all of DHS. Republicans had been working on a special partisan legislative vehicle known as reconciliation. That bill would include money for immigration enforcement for the rest of President Trump's term. And Johnson sided with those conservative members, initially calling the Senate-passed DHS bill a joke, but he reversed course as reconciliation dragged on. Now he says that that process is moving. Republicans could also approve that additional funding.
INSKEEP: Claudia, it's really interesting - when the House is so narrowly divided, the minority party, which sometimes is powerless, can have some leverage, can have some power. What role did Democrats play?
GRISALES: Yeah, exactly. Because Republicans have such tight margins in both chambers, they still need votes from Democrats. And as you may recall, DHS was on track to be part of this massive bipartisan spending bill at the start of the year.
INSKEEP: Yeah.
GRISALES: But the January deaths of two U.S. citizens at the hands of officers for DHS changed all of that. So Democrats pulled their support. They began pushing for a new deal to revamp the way these agents do their jobs, like banning face masks. But Republicans refused, and that triggered this shutdown that began February 14.
INSKEEP: What does this mean for the immigration enforcement that was not part of this agreement?
GRISALES: Well, those divisions are in a great position thanks to a massive tax and spending plan known as the One Big Beautiful Bill that passed last year. It directed $75 billion towards ICE, and this ongoing reconciliation process could get approved by June.
INSKEEP: OK. What else is the House managing to pass?
GRISALES: Right. They approved a 45-day extension of a key U.S. intelligence tool known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It would've expired at the end of the day yesterday. And that was also controversial among House conservatives and others who are worried about privacy protections, but Johnson was able to persuade his holdouts just before this recess began. A reminder - the desire to get out of town is often what can push these deals over the finish line for Congress.
INSKEEP: NPR's Claudia Grisales always meets her deadlines. Claudia, thanks so much.
GRISALES: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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