Mike Johnson caves to John Thune in DHS standoff

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) put out a joint statement with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), effectively surrendering in the standoff on Department of Homeland Security funding and agreeing to pass the bipartisan Senate funding bill that reopens the agency without Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Border Patrol funding.

This comes after House Republicans blocked the same legislation on Friday, which had passed the Senate by a voice vote with no objection from either party. At the time, Johnson demanded any DHS funding bill must fund those agencies as well, echoing demands from President Donald Trump.

"Speaker Johnson caves to Leader Thune," said NOTUS reporter Reese Gorman on X. "In a joint statement they announce they will fund DHS through both appropriations process and reconciliation. Legit what could’ve been done on Friday."

As part of this, Republicans are now planning to try to bypass Democrats' demands for reforms by putting funding for immigration and border enforcement in a reconciliation package, which, assuming four Senate Republicans don't defect, could pass without being subject to a Democratic filibuster.

"In the coming days, Republicans in the Senate and House will be following through on the President's directive by fully funding the entire Department of Homeland Security on two parallel tracks: through the appropriations process and through the reconciliation process," said the joint statement from Thune and Johnson. "We appreciate that Senator Graham and the Senate Budget Committee have already initiated the process of developing a budget resolution that will ensure border security and immigration enforcement will be funded for the balance of the Trump Administration and insulated from future attempts by the Democrats to defund those agencies."

"We operated under a belief that while our country is in the midst of an international armed conflict, Democrats might finally come to their senses and understand that defunding our homeland security agencies is beyond reckless and very dangerous," they continued. "While we hoped they would accept the 60-day CR to fund the Department entirely so that bipartisan negotiations could continue, it is now abundantly clear that Democrats place allegiance to their to their radical left-wing base above all else including their own power of the purse which means open borders and protecting criminal illegal aliens."

"That is not acceptable to Republicans in Congress, nor is it to the American people," the statement added. "We cannot allow Democrats to any longer put the safety of the American public at risk through their open border policies, so we are taking that off the table."