Airport Alert: House Passes FY26 DHS Appropriations Bill To End Shutdown

Seventy-five days into the current funding impasse for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the House approved on a voice vote this afternoon a partial DHS appropriations bill for fiscal year 2026 that the Senate passed almost one month ago. This appropriations bill funds all of DHS except activities related to immigration enforcement, deportation, and Border Patrol. President Trump is expected to swiftly sign this legislation.

Late yesterday evening, the House adopted a Senate-backed budget resolution that will begin the process of providing funding for immigration enforcement and Border Patrol activities in a reconciliation bill for the remainder of President Trump’s term. This move allowed the vote on the FY26 DHS appropriation bill to move forward today. President Trump has directed Congress to complete the reconciliation process no later than June 1, 2026.

The Administration had been advocating more aggressively to end the funding impasse after DHS Secretary Mullin announced on April 21 that the discretionary resources he had been using to pay DHS personnel were nearly gone. Mullin stated that he would not be able to fund payroll after May 2 without an appropriation bill and DHS personnel would once again be asked to work without pay. Once this bill is enacted into law, DHS will finally have a full year spending bill, seven months after the beginning of FY26.

Within TSA, this bill has notable wins for airports. Specifically, the bill:

• Rejects the administration’s request to dramatically downsize the TSA screener workforce;
• Rejects the administration’s request to shift exit lane staffing from TSA to airports and instead provides TSA funding to man exit lanes at its current locations;
• Restores funding for the TSA law enforcement officer and canine team reimbursement programs, ending more than two years of no funding for these two critical programs;
• Reimburses airports with the final amount for costs incurred before 2007 to install in-line baggage and screening technologies; and
• Substantially increases funding for the latest security and identity verification technologies to enhance security at checkpoints.

Within CBP, the bill does not include any funds to hire new officers because the agency received resources to hire 5,000 new officers last July as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill.