The United States Congress on Thursday approved a bipartisan bill to fund Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies, ending a partial department shutdown that had hampered operations for over two months.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives cleared the legislation by voice vote just hours before a critical deadline. Having already passed the Senate, the bill now goes to President Donald Trump to be signed into law, securing funding for key DHS agencies until the end of the fiscal year on September 30.

Under the bill, agencies including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration and the Secret Service will resume normal funding. However, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol – two controversial agencies at the center of the partisan fight that triggered the shutdown – are excluded from the deal.

Democrats had refused to support funding for immigration enforcement without new restrictions on tactics such as raids in sensitive locations and the use of masks by ICE agents. Democratic resistance intensified after the killing of two people in Minnesota by federal agents earlier this year.

Representative Chip Roy, a key Texas Republican, called isolating the immigration-related money “offensive to the men and women who serve in ICE and Border Patrol.” Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, who proposed the bill more than 70 days ago, said: “It’s about damn time.”

Source: www.dw.com