House Speaker Mike Johnson announces a 217-214 vote ending the partial government shutdown, funding 11 of 12 federal bills through September 30 while excluding Homeland Security (funded until February 13). He blames House Democrats for obstructing negotiations, criticizes blue-state election practices like extended ballot counting, and defends strict immigration enforcement—including the SAVE Act—citing biblical authority and past border failures. The bill now heads to President Trump, with a C-SPAN Ceasefire discussion featuring Sandweg and Wolf scheduled to address reforms. Johnson frames the move as a step toward "regular order," but tensions over election integrity and immigration remain unresolved. [Automatically generated summary]
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House Speaker Mike Johnson briefed reporters after lawmakers passed a measure to end the partial government shutdown by a vote of 217 to 214.
The bill funds most of the federal government through September 30th, except the Homeland Security Department, which is only funded through February 13th.
We just had an important and historic vote on the House floor, a series of votes today, in fact, and we delivered for the American people.
For some reason, many of the House Democrats wanted to shut the government down again and inflict pain on the American people.
But I'm glad to tell you, I'm happy to report.
Republicans got the job done.
Our majority worked together, and we got the bills over the line.
So we have now funded 11 of the 12 separate appropriations funding bills for the government for the year.
And that's a big achievement because it's a big move towards regular order.
It's something we promised and committed to.
The biggest move towards that in many, many years.
Now, the President, the White House have engaged in good faith with Democrats and the Senate, and they've said they would negotiate on the final bill, the Homeland Bill.
And you might say, well, now that 96% of the government is funded, it's just 4% what's out there.
But it's a very important 4%.
Because remember what the Homeland Security Bill covers.
It's not just immigration customs enforcement.
It's not just Customs and Border Patrol.
It is TSA.
It's the agents who keep us safe in the airports and keep air travel moving.
It's the Coast Guard.
It's Secret Service.
It's FEMA.
We're in the middle of winter storms that people are still digging out from.
So this is no time to play games with that funding.
We hope that they will operate in good faith over the next 10 days as we negotiate this.
The President, again, has reached out.
We are restoring calm in Minnesota.
But again, we make the plea and the demand that the governors and the mayors in these blue states and blue cities participate with federal law enforcement so that we have a safer environment in which to implement and to enforce federal immigration law.
It's very, very important, and it's something the American people demand and deserve.
So we'll go forward now.
We hope that everyone is in good faith.
We think the next two weeks will be critical, but I hope that they will not keep that funding in suspense because it's too important to the American people.
Mr. Speaker, good afternoon.
unidentified
Do you really think that they can work out something in such a short time period?
I mean, if everyone comes to the table in good faith, I'll tell you what we are not going to do.
We are not going to work towards some sort of amnesty program or something.
Some Democrats have whispered that that's what they would be about.
We are not going to impede the enforcement of federal immigration law.
We can't do that.
We have to apprehend these dangerous criminals.
We have convicted murderers and rapists and child molesters in cities across America.
And we have immigrations and customs enforcement for a reason.
These agents, these officers are doing heroic work trying to keep our communities safe.
And it's unconscionable to us that you would have Democrat mayors and governors trying to impede that work, encouraging their citizens to get in the way.
And that's what's created these dangerous environments.
How can you do that parliamentarily?
How can you do that for the MS?
Well, it's up to the will of the people in the building, and I hope that they'll come forward again in good faith to work this out.
Listen, they made a list of requests or demands last week.
Leader Schumer made that public.
And I will tell you that Tom Holman is in charge in Minnesota now, and he's already bringing about many of those changes.
They are wanting to make sure that immigration enforcement is done safely and smartly and efficiently.
And that's what you're going to get.
It's going to be balanced.
It's going to be a balanced approach.
Of the demands that were made, the requests that were made, many of those are already being implemented.
You notice that they're going to have the body cameras.
We put $20 million additional dollars in this legislation that they're holding up right now to pay for more body cameras.
But Secretary Noam came out yesterday, as you saw, and announced that this would be the new policy.
These are good things.
The roving patrols will be modified.
There are a lot of things that I think were thoughtful suggestions that would have already been implemented by Mr. Holman and others who are in charge of all this.
And so I think we can get to an agreement.
I certainly hope that's true.
And if they have any intention of trying to keep these other agencies of government closed, it will be a fool's errand.
And remember, we did front-load the funding for immigration's customs enforcement and CBP in the Big Beautiful Bill.
So they have enough funding to go for the next few years.
So what they will be tying up if the Democrats choose to close the government is these very essential services for everything else, FEMA, Coast Guard, TSA, and other aspects of national security.
So it's a very dangerous game that they're playing.
Yes, ma'am.
unidentified
Mr. Speaker, Twano's changes the U.S. outlined codified into law.
So will Republican members in the House support those changes and do they need assurances like the SAVE Act attached to it?
Well, look, we are going to be fighting for the SAVE Act.
And I'll tell you why this is so important.
We've passed it twice in the House, and we will pass it again.
The SAVE Act just simply says you have to have verification of citizenship to register to vote.
That's about a 90-10 issue on many of the polls in this country.
And we are going to enhance it by what the President calls the Save America Act.
And so it would be proof of citizenship to register to vote and voter ID, which is also about an 80 or 90 percent issue on the polling nationwide, depending on who you talk to.
These are very important things to ensure that our elections are free and fair and safe.
And that's a critical component of maintaining a constitutional republic.
So this is a big priority for not just House Republicans, but for the American people.
And we will continue to attach this to legislation and send it over.
And it will be part of the discussion over the next couple of weeks, and we'll see how that shakes out.
But I suspect that some of the changes, the procedural modifications with ICE, immigration's customs enforcement will be codified.
I mean, they've said that they're willing to do some of this, and so we'll see how it comes out.
I don't think we'll have to get rid of the filibuster to get these things done, and that's certainly our hope.
Yes, ma'am.
unidentified
To be clear, you're going to attach the SAVE Act to future DHS funding.
We have thoughtful debate about our election system every election cycle and sometimes in between.
We know it's in our system.
The states have been in charge of administering their elections.
What you're hearing from the president is his frustration about the lack of some of the blue states, frankly, of enforcing these things and making sure that they are free and fair elections.
We need constant improvement on that front.
I don't know what the ultimate solution is going to be.
I'm not going to get ahead of the negotiations here, but I think that is something that's going to be a continuing theme here.
It's something that we'll continue to push, and we hope the governors will insist upon that same thing as well.
In some of the states, like in California, for example, I mean, they hold the elections open for weeks after Election Day.
That's just one thing that bothers so many people.
We had three House Republican candidates who were ahead on Election Day in the last election cycle.
And every time a new tranche of ballots came in, they just magically whittled away until their leads were lost.
And no series of ballots that were counted after Election Day were our candidates ahead on any of those counts.
It just looks on its face to be fraudulent.
Can I prove that?
No, because it happened so far upstream.
But we need more confidence in the American people in the election system, and it's essential.
And everybody, no matter what party you're in, should agree with that.
The mass mailing of paper ballot or mail-in ballots and all the other irregularities that have haunted us over the last couple cycles, we need to tighten that up.
Now, the red states have done a lot of good work in that front, but it's the blue states that I'm frankly concerned about.
So we'll see how the law is modified and what's changed, but I hope we can get consensus to get that done.
unidentified
Poblio has cited Matthew 25, 35 to critique Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda.
So you want me to give you a theological dissertation?
All right.
I'll tell you what, I'll post it on my website later today, but let me give you a quick summary.
Borders and walls are biblical from the Old Testament to the new.
God has allowed us to set up our civil societies and have separate nations.
Immigration is not something that's frowned upon in Scripture.
In fact, it's welcome.
We're going to welcome the sojourner and love our neighbor as ourselves.
But what's also important in the Bible is that assimilation is expected and anticipated and proper.
When someone comes into your country, comes into your nation, they do not have the right to change its laws or to change its society.
They're expected to assimilate.
We haven't had a lot of that going on.
When people cite passages out of the Old Testament, they say, well, you're supposed to take care of the sojourner and the neighbor, treat them as yourself, welcome then.
Yes, but that is an admonition to individuals, not to the civil authorities.
The civil authorities are given authority under scripture to maintain order.
Romans 12, you want to do this?
Romans 13 says that the civil authorities are God's agents of wrath to bring punishment upon the wrongdoer.
And it says, if you do right, you have no fear of the civil authorities, but those civil authorities are necessary.
It's a calling.
It's a calling to maintain order in society.
And we have not had that.
When Biden and Harris opened the borders wide for four years, we had as many as 20 million illegals come across the country.
And we all know many dangerous people, hardened criminals, child molesters, rapists, murderers, all the rest, terrorists who came into the country.
We did not take care of our borders.
Sovereign borders are biblical and good and right, and they're just because it's not because we hate the people on the outside, it's because we love the people on the inside.
We should love our neighbor as ourselves as individuals, but it's a civil authority and the government has to maintain the law.
And that is biblical, and it's right and it's just.
And I'm happy to have this lengthy debate with anybody at any time they want to.
And I'll post on my ex page the longer dissertation on that for you today, okay?
Thank you all so much.
unidentified
Today, the House approved a revised funding package to end the partial government shutdown that began Saturday.
The legislation covers 78 percent of the federal government through the end of September and includes a two-week funding extension for the Homeland Security Department, allowing lawmakers more time to negotiate additional appropriations for the agency as Democrats push for potential reforms to current immigration enforcement operations.
Ceasefire Friday00:01:05
unidentified
That package now heads to President Trump, who plans to sign it into law.
When the House returns, be sure to follow our live coverage right here on C-SPAN.
Friday, on C-SPAN Ceasefire, at a time when finding common ground matters most in Washington, we'll feature a bipartisan conversation on the future of immigration enforcement in the U.S. With John Sandweg serving as acting director of ICE during the Obama administration and Chad Wolf serving as acting Secretary of Homeland Security during the first Trump administration.
Join host Dasha Burns.
Bridging the Divide in American Politics.
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