House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman-designate Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-40) and House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita M. Lowey (NY-17) today released legislation to end the Trump Shutdown and reopen the Department of Homeland Security through February 28. The legislation is expected to be considered in the House this week.
The legislation, H.J. Res. 31, is a Continuing Resolution that reopens Homeland Security through February 28 and ensures that Homeland Security employees receive back pay. It complements a package of six appropriations bills reflecting bipartisan House-Senate conference agreements that will also be considered this week. Together, the two bills ensure that the entire federal government will reopen while President Trump and Congress negotiate on border security and immigration policy.
“Senate Republicans and President Trump must stop holding our nation’s security and our federal workers hostage to the president’s demand for a costly and ineffective border wall,” said Chairwoman-designate Roybal-Allard. “By reopening the Department of Homeland Security, we can ensure our nation’s security needs are met and that our DHS workers get the paychecks they have earned and their families count on.”
“It is imperative that we reopen the federal government and pay federal employees while important conversations continue on border security and immigration policy,” said Chairwoman Lowey. “This Continuing Resolution will ensure that the Department of Homeland Security is open and its employees are getting paid while these important negotiations take place. After the House adopts it, I urge my colleagues in the Senate to pass it without delay.”
The CR for Homeland Security will be the 11th bill House Democrats have voted on to reopen the federal government. Since January 3, the House has passed seven pieces of legislation to reopen the federal government, and a revote is pending on an eighth that was initially adopted by voice vote Thursday. That includes an emergency disaster appropriations bill that included a CR through February 8, four individual bipartisan Senate appropriations bills, a package of six bipartisan Senate appropriations bills, and a CR for Homeland Security through February 8. A revote is pending on a Continuing Resolution that covered the entire government through February 28 and was initially passed Thursday. House Republicans blocked the passage of a ninth bill, a CR through February 1.
The full text of H.J. Res. 31 is available here.