DHS Funding-President Trump has asked Congress to 1) provide 3 years of funding for Border Patrol and ICE through a mechanism called budget reconciliation and 2) fund the rest of the DHS through the FY 2027 DHS Appropriations Bill. Funding Border Patrol and ICE through budget reconciliation requires only a simple majority and can pass with solely Republican votes. The Senate has already taken the first step, and the House is expected to vote later this afternoon (Wednesday, April 29th) to start their process. The goal is to have this legislation on the President’s desk no later than June 1st.
Pay- Currently DHS employees are being paid from funds provided from the One Big Beautiful Bill that passed last summer. The challenge is that DHS’s biweekly payroll costs $1.7 billion, and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin has publicly stated that these funds will be exhausted sometime in early May, if not sooner. By way of background, pay periods 10 and 11 are due to be paid on May 8th and May 22nd respectively. It is unclear whether the Administration will be able to make full or partial payments for pay periods 10 and 11. We need to alert our members now that there is a real possibility that they may not be fully paid for either of these pay periods.