House Passes Bipartisan DHS Funding, Ends Shutdown

House Speaker Mike Johnson led the passage of a bipartisan bill funding much of the Department of Homeland Security this week, ending what officials described as the longest agency shutdown in history, amid ongoing chaotic proceedings in the Republican-controlled chamber.

Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana who assumed the speakership more than two years ago after Kevin McCarthy's ouster, has presided over one of the slimmest House majorities in modern times. The narrow margin has complicated efforts to advance legislation, particularly on party-line votes excluding Democrats. The House has experienced all-night sessions, extended periods of inactivity on the floor, bills drafted hastily behind closed doors and sudden late-night votes, alongside both failures and occasional successes.

This week, proceedings included a five-hour delay while Johnson met privately to advance his agenda, followed by a vote near 11 p.m. Two weeks earlier, a routine House Rules Committee hearing extended into midnight discussions on a newly produced 14-page revision to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. The measure proceeded to a floor vote at 2 a.m. but failed.