ICE Funding Trimmed in Bipartisan Homeland Security Bill (1)

Key lawmakers agreed to reduce ICE’s enforcement and removal budget and institute modest reforms of the controversial agency after the fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis.

The House and Senate Appropriations Committees announced an agreement Tuesday to give $64.4 billion to the Department of Homeland Security as part of its last appropriations bill for the fiscal year, teeing up one the most hotly contested funding measures for potential House passage later this week.

The measure was released with three other funding bills but will get a standalone vote, according to a statement from House Appropriations Committee ranking member Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.).

ICE would get $10 billion for the current fiscal year, including $3.8 billion for detainment and deportation operations, according to a summary from House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole’s (R-Okla.) office. The bill would cut enforcement and removal operations by $115 million but keep the agency’s overall funding flat, according to DeLauro.

The Homeland Security measure is considered to be one of the hardest — if not the hardest — bill to negotiate given it deals with the fraught topic of immigration policy. The bill was further complicated by the fatal ICE shooting earlier this month of a woman, Renee Good, in her car. The bipartisan deal represents a major win for lawmakers to fund government agencies long-term after Congress passed a full-year stopgap for the 2025 fiscal year.

“It’s time to get it across the finish line,” Cole said in a statement.

Body Cameras, De-escalation Training

The negotiated bill dedicates $20 million to body cameras for immigration enforcement agents and officers and instructs DHS to standardize uniforms for domestic law enforcement except when agents are working undercover.

It also caps detention funding and improves transparency around DHS’s use of the funds Republicans gave it in last year’s mega tax-and-spending law.

“ICE must be reined in,” DeLauro said in a statement. “The bill takes several steps in the right direction.”

The bill directs DHS to provide additional de-escalation training for ICE and CBP agents operating in the interior along with training on the public’s right to record interactions with federal agents, according to a summary from Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Patty Murray’s (D-Wash.) office.

But it doesn’t include the broader reforms Democrats proposed, risking House Democratic defections.

“The suggestion that a shutdown in this moment might curb the lawlessness of this administration is not rooted in reality,” Murray said in a statement, citing mandatory funding in Republicans’ last reconciliation law. “The hard truth is that Democrats must win political power to enact the kind of accountability we need.”

FEMA, Secret Service

The measure proposes $5.7 billion — excluding $26 billion for the Disaster Relief Fund — for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, $873 million above currently enacted levels, according to Murray’s summary.

The bill also includes language restricting pauses in FEMA’s non-grant funding and places new public reporting requirements on the status of FEMA’s review of state reimbursement requests, imposing financial penalties on DHS if it delays those reimbursements.

The Secret Service would receive $3.3 billion, according to Murray’s summary, which includes $44 million for planning and coordination of upcoming major events, including the 2026 FIFA World Cup, America’s Semiquincentennial, and the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic games.