By Sarah Ferris

(CNN) — President Donald Trump’s budget office sent a memo to Capitol Hill on Tuesday evening urging House Republicans to agree to partly reopen the Department of Homeland Security – even without new cash for immigration enforcement.

The existence of the memo, which was confirmed by a person familiar with its contents, could amount to a major development in the monthslong impasse around DHS funding.

Trump officials are now telling House Republicans to accept a compromise measure from the Senate, which does not include money for ICE or border patrol, to ensure that workers do not go unpaid. Many House Republicans have so far refused to pass any DHS funding without simultaneously approving another funding bill for ICE.

The pressure from the White House comes as House Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to say whether he will put that partial, Senate-passed DHS funding bill on the floor this week before the House leaves for a weeklong recess.

The speaker told CNN on Monday that legislation has “some problematic language because it was haphazardly drafted,” indicating House Republicans want technical changes to the package.

Resolving the 74-day shutdown – already the longest in history – has proved a steep task for Johnson, and the issue has further divided his already fractious House GOP.

The party is bitterly split with conservatives furious that Senate Majority Leader John Thune agreed to Democratic demands to only partially fund the department. In response, House Republicans are scrambling to pass a separate – and legislatively complex – package focused on funding federal immigration enforcement and border patrol without Democratic support.

Johnson previously indicated that he would not take up the partial DHS funding bill until House Republicans take a separate vote teeing up that complicated process, known as budget reconciliation, which is expected to take weeks.

The memo from the budget office, which Punchbowl News first reported, comes as the delay in funding has raised concerns with some of the GOP’s national security hawks, who worry that the Department of Homeland Security will run out of money within days.

Those Republicans have warned that the House needs to act on the Senate-passed bill as soon as possible – and certainly before the chamber leaves next week for recess.

Tens of thousands of DHS workers missed several paychecks earlier in the standoff, prompting Transportation Security Administration officers to call out in higher numbers, which caused hourslong screening delays at multiple airports around the country.

When lawmakers failed to act, Trump last month issued an unusual directive ordering DHS to pay TSA workers and shortly after to compensate other agency staffers who were not being paid. The money came from a $10 billion fund created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which congressional Republicans approved last year.

Workers received their back pay for February and March, as well as compensation for April, and the lines at the airports dissipated.

However, that fund is now close to exhausted, with less than $1.4 billion remaining as of April 19, according to the White House budget office. Last week, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin warned on “Fox & Friends” that the money to pay workers would run out by early May.

Law enforcement workers at DHS, including those in immigration enforcement and border patrol, are also being paid through Republicans’ “big, beautiful bill,” which separately provided tens of millions of dollars for their operations. It’s unclear whether they would also stop being paid next month.

But even if Johnson were to bring the partial DHS funding bill to the floor, it could still face steep odds.

A senior House Republican told CNN on Tuesday that the votes simply don’t exist to partly end the DHS shutdown this week without having money “in hand” for federal immigration enforcement.

“No one is going to vote to fund Homeland without money for ICE and CBP,” said Rep. Jodey Arrington of Texas, who leads the House Budget Committee.

The remarks from Arrington — a retiring Republican who is respected among the party’s ultraconservative wing — signify the massive road block that Congress is facing to end the shutdown.

This story has been updated with additional information.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.