Republicans and Democrats sparred Wednesday on the potential real-world harms of a partial shutdown for the Department of Homeland Security, as Congress marched toward a funding deadline for the agency amid a dispute over immigration enforcement policies. The House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee held a hearing with officials from five national security and emergency management agencies to highlight what would happen if a continuing resolution expires Saturday without further action from Congress. The subcommittee's chairman, Mark Amodei, R-Nev., said that “a shutdown has gone from a distinct possibility to a probability” and noted that the missions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection “will largely not be affected by a shutdown” because it is funded by last year’s budget reconciliation law. Instead, the pain will be felt by employees at the Transportation Security Administration, Secret Service and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency who will have to work without a paycheck, he said, and disaster relief would be reduced just weeks after a massive winter storm affected wide swaths of the country. “The good work that the department does outside of immigration enforcement will come to a screeching halt,” Amodei said. House Appropriations ranking member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said at the hearing she would not provide another penny for immigration enforcement without policy changes, but she said Republican leadership “will bear the responsibility for the impacts that we will hear about today.” DeLauro introduced a bill Wednesday that would provide full-year funding for every agency covered under the Homeland Security bill for a full-year except ICE and CBP. That includes the Federal Emergency Management Agency, CISA, Coast Guard, TSA and the Secret Service, along with other programs covered by the bill. “The Republicans want to continue to defend a rogue, lawless agency that is terrorizing people,” DeLauro said. “That’s going to be a long negotiation. We shouldn’t hold these other agencies hostage.” Asked about the prospects for a DHS bill minus ICE and CBP funds, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., appeared skeptical but declined to rule out the possibility. "Why would we prohibit funding for a very important function of the U.S. government?" he told reporters. "I think that's something they've got to determine, and it's up to the White House." While most Democrats have said they don’t support another temporary extension, House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, said he would be open to a stopgap measure. “I can’t speak for anybody [else], but I’m willing to do a short CR so we can work this out,” Cuellar said. He noted that the top four leaders of the Appropriations committees had reached an agreement on the fiscal 2026 Homeland Security spending bill, which passed the House before a second fatal shooting in Minneapolis by immigration enforcement agents. The primary legislative action is a vote Thursday in the Senate, where negotiations did not show outward signs of progress. Democrats have insisted on a variety of policies they want to include in the bill to rein in what they say are the department’s abuses. “We’re 3 days away from a DHS shutdown and Republicans have not gotten serious about negotiating a solution that reins in ICE and stops the violence. Democrats will not support a CR to extend the status quo,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., said on social media. Agency impacts During the subcommittee hearing, Madhu Gottumukkala, acting director of CISA, estimated that one-third of crucial workers would have to continue working without pay “even when the nation-state actors intensify efforts to exploit the systems that Americans rely on.” “A shutdown would degrade our capacity to provide timely and actionable guidance to help partners defend their networks,” Gottumukkala said. “Operations would be constrained and service delivery delayed in core mission areas such as cyber response, security assessments, stakeholder engagements, training exercises and special event planning.” Ha Nguyen McNeill, acting administrator of TSA, recounted the experience of her workers during the last government shutdown, recalling increased rates of unscheduled absences and localized spikes in wait times for flights. "The mental and emotional toll that it takes on our workforce cannot be understated," McNeill said. "We saw a lot of folks have to take on second jobs, making for extremely long workdays." McNeill said TSA experienced a 25 percent increase in its workforce attrition rate during the last shutdown compared with the same period in the previous year, which she said "is quite concerning if we're looking at another potential shutdown." Matthew Quinn, deputy director of the Secret Service, said a shutdown would complicate efforts in acquiring new counterdrone technology the agency needs to purchase now in anticipation of future events, such as the World Cup in 2026 and the presidential election in 2028. "Supply chain issues are — they're terrible," Quinn said. "Within that particular capability, we're looking at sometimes six months. If we aren't ordering today, we're looking at not having specific amounts of gear to be able to support the mission, not to mention what we're looking forward to in 2028 and beyond." Gregg Phillips, associate administrator of the Office of Response and Recovery at FEMA, said there would be difficulties coordinating with state and local officials during a shutdown as well as providing payments under the Disaster Relief Fund, even though those actions would continue on an emergency basis. "Make no mistake that our ability to process any payments under the DRF is going to be diminished when, if there is a lapse," Phillips said. Adm. Thomas Allan, the acting vice commandant of the Coast Guard, estimated a shutdown would halt pay for 56,000 active-duty reserve and civilian personnel, in addition to halting planned activities and maintenance needed for readiness. "Our cutters, aircraft and boats further degrade as scheduled maintenance is deferred and the flow of spare parts is cut off," Allan said. "This results in grounded aircraft, static cutters and a multimillion-dollar part backlog that takes time to fix." Aidan Quigley and Valerie Yurk contributed to this report.
