House

Path forward on reconciliation 2.0 steep with challenges

by Sudiksha Kochi - 04/30/26 7:17 PM ET

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by Sudiksha Kochi - 04/30/26 7:17 PM ET

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The House took a major step in passing a Senate bipartisan bill to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Thursday, but the tougher fight over funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol still lies ahead.

Republicans are aiming to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years through a special process known as reconciliation, which would allow them to bypass a filibuster in the Senate. The plan comes after Democrats and Republicans failed to strike a deal over immigration enforcement reforms — a key demand from the minority party after the shooting of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota by federal agents.

The House adopted a Senate-crafted budget blueprint Wednesday that details what would be included in the reconciliation bill, kickstarting the process. But there is still a long way to go before a bill ends up on President Trump’s desk.

Trump had imposed a deadline of June 1 to get the bill done, arguing that they can make it if Republicans “keep to the plan, FAST and FOCUSED.” Lawmakers are set to leave for recess next week, which means they have less than a month to craft the bill and muster up enough support in both chambers for it to pass.

House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) told reporters Monday that he expects the process to take a “few weeks,” but he added, “We can’t wait until June 1. That’s what I can tell you.”

The tight timeline won’t be the only headache for GOP leaders, though. In the Senate, the bill must go through “Byrd bath,” which allows the Senate parliamentarian to strip out provisions that are considered extraneous and non-budgetary in nature.

The process is likely to heighten tensions among lawmakers, who are likely to push their own priorities in the reconciliation bill.

And in the House, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who is navigating a razor-thin margin, must rally both hard-line conservatives and moderates to get on board with the package. He can only afford to lose two GOP defection votes on any party-line bill, assuming all members are present and Democrats are unified in opposition.

Rep. Kevin Kiley (I-Calif.), who voted present on the budget resolution, said in a statement his vote on a final bill “will depend on the passage of meaningful reforms to immigration enforcement that are supported by the vast majority of Americans.”

Last year, both Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) voted against the first reconciliation bill, dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) told The Hill in March it will probably be more difficult to get a reconciliation bill passed in the House.

“Just finding the conservative policies that are not so conservative, that you lose all the folks that are in swing seats, and if you get it not conservative enough, you can’t get enough of the conservatives in there that want to do as much as we can,” Hern said.

While Johnson on Thursday acknowledged in a press briefing his slim margin, he noted that House Republicans “ultimately deliver.”

“We get a lot of people together, and we listen to their concerns, and we try to get the disparate priorities handled. I’ve never asked a colleague in the Republican party ever to violate a core principle, but sometimes we have to give up on our preferences because we are in a large body … So, it takes a long time to work through that and get people to consensus, but we do that patiently. We do as we must, and we ultimately deliver. Don’t doubt the House Republican majority. We always deliver for the American people.”

He added earlier: “We will finish the work and finally get — again for three years with no crazy Democrat reforms — we will fund border patrol and immigration enforcement as soon as we return for the work session when that bill is finalized.”

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