Ahmad Austin Jr.Apr 27th, 2026, 5:00 pm

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Monday once again rejected the proposed bill that would reopen the Department of Homeland Security without ICE funding.

Since a string of high-profile killings at the hands of ICE agents, congressional Democrats have vowed not to pass any spending package that includes funding for the agency. This stalemate between Democrats and Republicans has led to DHS going without additional funding, and that lack of funding has hit TSA especially hard. Over the last few weeks, people traveling across the U.S. have experienced extremely long wait times at major airports, despite the GOP-led Senate passing a measure to fund TSA and DHS without fully funding ICE.

On Monday, CNN’s Manu Raju asked Johnson why he won’t help get the bill passed in the House. At the time of writing, it had already passed in the Senate twice.

“It has some problematic language because it was haphazardly drafted,” Johnson responded, “and so we’ve stated our objections about that very clearly.”

Asked if Johnson will “ever” put the bill on the House floor, he said, “We have a modified version that I think is going to be much better for both chambers. It doesn’t change. To the substance, but it makes sure that we’re not going to orphan two of the primary agencies of DHS. We have to make sure that immigration law is enforced and that the border is safe and secure. Democrats don’t want to have any part of that, so unfortunately, we have to do that on our own.”

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