Cybersecurity Policy Report, House, Senate at Odds Over Bill to End CISA Shutdown, (Mar 27, 2026)
The Senate late yesterday approved by unanimous consent a spending bill that would enable the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to reopen after a six-week shutdown.
The Senate approved an amended version of the Homeland Security and Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act, 2026 (H.R. 7147, 119th Cong. (2026)).
But House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) today called the Senate bill a “joke” and said the House was instead considering a stopgap spending bill that would fund CISA and other components of the Department of Homeland Security through May 22.
“It can’t be that every Senate Republican read the language of this bill,” Speaker Johnson told reporters. “The [House] Republicans are not going to be a party to this.”
House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (D., Mass.) today alerted her caucus “that additional votes related to FY26 DHS Appropriations are possible today and throughout the weekend. Members are encouraged to remain in D.C.”
The Senate bill would provide $2.6 billion for CISA’s fiscal year 2026 expenses, the same amount proposed in previous spending bills (CPR, March 6).
CISA was forced to shut down all but its most essential operations on Feb. 13 after the Senate failed to adopt a bill approved by the House to fund the Department of Homeland Security for the rest of FY 2026 (CPR, Feb. 13).
Senate Democrats want to consider appropriations for DHS’s immigration functions separately from the rest of the department so that they address DHS’s aggressive immigration enforcement. The Senate bill adopted yesterday funds everything except immigration, enabling the department to resume operations related to airport security and disaster assistance, among other things.
At a hearing this week, CISA’s acting director, Nick Andersen, told the House Homeland Security Committee that the shutdown was undermining the agency’s efforts to help state governments and critical infrastructure operators defend themselves against cyber threats (CPR, March 25).
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