KEEPING THE LIGHTS ON: Trump signed legislation Thursday to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), effectively ending a record-long partial shutdown — though U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol were excluded.
The House passed the bill earlier in the day to fund most DHS agencies, weeks after the Senate approved it. House GOP leaders had sat on it for weeks amid a push from conservatives to ensure immigration enforcement would be funded at the same time.
But Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) faced increasing pressure from the White House, Senate and rank-and-file Republicans to fund most of DHS, as the administration had been running out of money to tap into in the interim. The administration had diverted funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to pay all DHS employees in recent weeks, but officials had warned that was set to run out by the first week of May.
The bipartisan measure will restore funding for key agencies, including the Transportation Security Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Coast Guard and Secret Service, through the end of the current fiscal year on Sept. 30.
Congress has still yet to fund ICE and Border Patrol. Congressional Republicans are seeking to cover those agencies for three years through a reconciliation bill, allowing them to get past the filibuster in the Senate without Democratic support.
The Senate and House have both passed a budget blueprint to get that bill queued up, but debate remains within the GOP conference as to how wide-ranging it should be.
▪ New York magazine: DHS shutdown ends with an exhausted whimper.
ARE WE AT WAR? Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth argued Thursday that the clock for the president to carry out military operations against Iran without congressional authorization paused when Trump announced a ceasefire.
Friday marks 60 days since the president formally notified Congress of the military offensive against Iran on March 2, the point at which the War Powers Act says Trump must wind down operations unless Congress approves an extension. But Hegseth asserted during testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee that the clock stopped when the U.S. stopped bombing Iran on April 7.
He engaged in a back-and-forth on that point Thursday with Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who pushed back on Hegseth’s interpretation.
“We are in a ceasefire right now, which our understanding means the 60-day clock pauses or stops in a ceasefire,” Hegseth said.
“I think the 60 days runs maybe tomorrow, and it’s going to pose a really important legal question for the administration there,” Kaine responded.
Johnson echoed Hegseth, telling NBC News that the U.S. is “not at war” with Iran because there is no “active, kinetic military bombing, firing or anything like that.”
The Senate again defeated a war powers resolution Thursday seeking to restrict Trump’s authority to conduct military operations against Iran. This was the sixth defeat of such a resolution, but it did pick up one additional supporter as Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) broke ranks to back it.
Collins previously said she would oppose authorizing strikes against Iran beyond the 60-day window of the War Powers Act.
▪ The Hill: Five takeaways from Hegseth’s tangle with Dems.
▪ The Hill: Trump faces critical 60-day clock as GOP support for war wanes.
▪ The Hill: When does the Iran war hit 60 days?
COMING TOGETHER: Democrats are rallying behind oyster farmer Graham Platner’s bid to try to oust Collins in Maine’s Senate race this year after Gov. Janet Mills (D) dropped out Thursday.
Platner and Mills had been set to face off in the June primary. But Platner led comfortably in both fundraising and polling against the two-term governor — leading by 20 points or more in recent polls.
Mills was a recruit of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to challenge Collins, but she had trouble gaining traction.
“The base couldn’t have spoken more clearly,” Democratic strategist Christy Setzer told The Hill’s Julia Mueller and Amie Parnes.
In a speech after Thursday’s announcement, Platner thanked Mills for her service to the state and said he looked forward to working together to oust Collins, who is running for her sixth term.
"We will defeat Susan Collins, we will go to Washington, and we will start tearing down the system that for too long has forgotten and written off the people who make Maine and this country what it is,” he said.
▪ The Hill: Dems question Schumer’s strategy.
▪ The Hill: Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) says Republicans ‘love’ Platner.
PUNT ON FISA: Congress bought itself more time to reach an agreement on the nation’s warrantless spy powers as lawmakers passed a 45-day extension that ensured the program didn’t go dark at midnight.
The Senate approved the extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) by unanimous consent, while the House passed it in a 261-111 vote. The House had approved a three-year extension with modest reforms Wednesday, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said that bill would be dead on arrival due to an attached provision barring the Federal Reserve from launching a central digital currency.
This is the second extension passed to prevent Section 702 from expiring after an earlier 10-day extension. But efforts to enact a longer-term resolution face hurdles as members of both sides of the aisle take issue with certain parts of the provision’s current language.
Privacy advocates have particularly expressed concern about the possibility of Americans’ communications with foreigners under surveillance getting swept up.
▪ The Hill: Senate panel advances bill to curb AI chatbot ‘companions’ for kids.
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