WASHINGTON — The Senate moved early Thursday to try again to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, but House Republicans declined to clear the Senate plan for President Donald Trump, prolonging the record agency shutdown even after GOP leaders had agreed on a way to end it swiftly.

Meeting in a brief ceremonial session, the House opted not to take up spending legislation that the Senate had sent over about 90 minutes earlier, leaving a quick resolution to the stalemate out of reach for now. It was unclear when the House, which is in a two-week recess, might consider the bill or if it would have to wait until lawmakers are scheduled to return in mid-April.

Hard-right House Republicans are infuriated about the deal, which omits money for immigration enforcement and which Speaker Mike Johnson called “a joke” last week before abruptly caving Wednesday and endorsing it after Trump appeared to warm to the idea.

“I don’t know the particulars around what the House will do with it, but my assumption is at some point hopefully they will move it,” Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the majority leader, told reporters, referring to the legislation.

House Democrats had already said they would back the measure, allowing it to pass the chamber easily if Johnson were to put it to a vote and persuade enough Republicans to follow his lead in supporting it.

But ultraconservative Republicans have slammed the plan because it lacks money for immigration enforcement. They argue it guts the agencies that police the nation’s borders, though their operations have been funded throughout the partial shutdown through a separate slush fund from the tax cut bill Republicans pushed through the House last year.

The rare early-morning maneuvering was aimed at bringing to an immediate end to the longest partial government shutdown on record, which has snarled airport security lines and left thousands of agency workers going without pay or furloughed in a bitter dispute over the conduct and tactics of federal immigration officers.

After days of angry exchanges, House and Senate Republican leaders on Wednesday announced they had come to an agreement resolving their dispute. Under their compromise, Congress would fund the agency on a two-track approach by passing the Senate plan the House had first repudiated and then using a special budget process to skirt the filibuster and push through legislation providing money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol over Democratic opposition.

A senior White House official said Wednesday that Trump, who had blasted the plan just last week, would sign the homeland security spending bill.

But rather than taking it up Thursday morning and clearing it for the president’s signature, Johnson left the agreement he had blessed in limbo in the House. The next opportunity to act on the measure would be Monday, when the chamber is scheduled to hold another ceremonial session.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Carl Hulse and Michael Gold/Tierney L. Cross
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