HR 7147 Amended and Passed in Senate – FY 2026 DHS Spending

Late Thursday night (actually 2:17 am Friday) the Senate bypassed all of the previous attempts to close debate on proceeding to consideration of HR 7147, the FY 2026 DHS spending bill, and began consideration of the bill (pg S1660) under unanimous consent. The Senate took up Thune amendment SA 4790, which was substitute language that removed the section dealing with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), thus removing funding for that agency from the bill. The amended language and then the amended bill were then adopted by voice vote. Of course, ICE has continued functioning and paying their personnel during the DHS shutdown from monies authorized by the “Big Beautiful Bill”.

Passed by ‘voice vote’ is normally an indication of broad, bipartisan support, as would the consideration of the measure under unanimous consent. But, this bill was ‘considered’ late at night and reporting by Andrew Desiderio of Punchbowl.news noted that there were only five Senators present on the Senate floor when the vote was cast; Sen Thune (R,SD), Sen Schmidt (R,MO), Sen Moreno (R,OH; presiding), Sen Schatz (D,HI), and Sen Kim (D,NJ). So, while there was technically bipartisan support for the measure, there are legitimate questions about how widespread that support extended in both parties.

More on subsequent action in the House in a separate post.