The U.S. Senate briefly convened and adjourned within seconds, postponing action on a House-passed bill to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security, reports noted on Monday. The House had approved the Republican-led measure on Friday in a 213–203 vote, with all Republicans and three Democrats supporting the legislation.
The bill would fund DHS operations for eight weeks. The vote followed a breakdown in negotiations after House leadership rejected a Senate proposal that would have funded most DHS functions while excluding enforcement agencies such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Border Patrol.
During the pro forma session, presided over by Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND), the Senate gaveled in and out without taking up the House measure, effectively delaying consideration of the legislation.
Not all Senate Republicans were on board with the maneuver, which also effectively prohibits President Trump from making any recess appointments. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah ripped the move and said the chamber should have remained in session until DHS funding was passed.
“This is the Senate’s *second* recess since the DHS shutdown began,” he wrote on X. “The Senate shouldn’t have taken the last one (right after the impasse began) either, but it certainly shouldn’t take this one—a two-week recess 40 days into the crisis. This is insane. And inhumane. The Senate should convene immediately and debate funding proposals until DHS is fully funded.”
He added in a separate post: “The Senate just completed a pro forma session. No attempt was made to pass DHS funding by unanimous consent. The Senate must convene now.”
Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin said he was told by Sen. Chris Coons that the Delaware Democrat attended the pro-forma session with the intent of killing the DHS funding measure, even as members of his party falsely claim they aren’t holding it up.
“Just in case a Republican member showed up and said, ‘I ask unanimous consent that we fund ICE and Border Patrol,’ or that ‘we adopt the House bill,’ I was there to object,” Coons said.
“I was here just in case there were some shenanigans, and there was a Democrat needed to block an attempt at taking up and passing the Save act, which would disenfranchise millions of Americans, or full funding for DHS with no reforms for ICE or Border Patrol,” Coons added.
In a 213-203 vote, House Republicans on Friday rejected the Senate-passed DHS funding deal and instead approved their own measure, extending a shutdown that has now reached nearly 45 days.
Speaker Mike Johnson and House Republicans advanced a plan to fund DHS for eight weeks, including money for border enforcement that was excluded from the Senate bill.
The move effectively blocks the Senate proposal and prolongs the shutdown, CNN reported.
The Senate measure, backed by both parties, would fund most of the department but does not include funding for immigration enforcement agencies. That omission became a key point of contention for House Republicans and President Donald Trump.
Several Republicans have joined Sen. Lee in demanding the Senate return from recess to take up the House bill. Trump has also moved to fund Transportation Security Administration workers through executive action during the shutdown.
The decision marks a sharp break between House and Senate Republicans, with Johnson directly challenging Senate Majority Leader John Thune. House GOP leaders said they were not part of the negotiations that produced the Senate agreement.
“This gambit that was done last night is a joke,” Johnson said, while placing blame on Senate Democrats. He later said he spoke with Thune before the House rejected the bill.
“I told him, it shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody that we would not be able to do that,” Johnson said. “We’re not going to split apart two of the most important agencies in the government and leave them hanging like that. We just couldn’t do it.”