Weekly Recap: DHS Shutdown, Senate's 74 Votes, and Congress's Unfinished Business — April 4, 2026

Congress packed more drama into the final week of March 2026 than most legislative months produce. A new Department of Homeland Security secretary was confirmed. The Senate failed three separate cloture votes on DHS funding — in the span of a single week. The House passed its own version of DHS appropriations with just three Democratic crossovers. The Senate blocked it the same evening. Then both chambers left for spring recess, leaving TSA workers, ICE agents, and border personnel in the same limbo they've been in for over 40 days.

What follows is CVT's full accounting of the votes, the numbers, and what they mean for the 119th Congress's second session — now heading into its first significant legislative test of the spring.

The Vote That Defined the Week: House DHS Rule, 213–203

On the morning of March 27, 2026, the House passed H.Res. 1142 (Roll Call #108) by a margin of 213–203, directing the chamber to accept the House's version of DHS appropriations — full funding including ICE and Customs and Border Protection — and send it back to the Senate.

The breakdown was stark:

The three Democratic crossovers: Rep. Don Davis D-NC, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez D-WA, and Rep. Henry Cuellar D-TX. All three represent swing districts or have moderate voting histories on immigration and security funding. The House adjourned immediately after the vote. By that same evening, the Senate tabled the House's message by voice vote — and the standoff continued.

How We Got Here: The Senate's 74-Vote March

By March 26, 2026, the Senate had cast 74 roll call votes in the 119th Congress's second session — and a disproportionate number of them were procedural battles over the same question: how to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

Here is the timeline of DHS-related Senate votes in the final week of March:

Each cloture attempt required 60 votes. None cleared that bar. The highest support came on the reconsideration vote (54 Yea), where one Democrat — Sen. John Fetterman D-PA — crossed the aisle to support moving forward. Fetterman has now voted YES on every Senate cloture attempt on H.R. 7147, making him the sole Democratic crossover on DHS funding in the upper chamber.

Notably, Senate Majority Leader John Thune R-SD voted NO on the final cloture attempt (Vote #74) — an unusual procedural move that signals he may no longer support the current bill's structure and may be positioning for the two-track deal (more on that below).

Mullin Is In: New DHS Chief Confirmed 54–45

Before the DHS funding fight consumed the week's final days, the Senate confirmed Sen. Markwayne Mullin R-OK as the new Secretary of Homeland Security on March 23, 2026. The confirmation vote (#63) was 54–45, with 1 Not Voting (Sen. Ruben Gallego D-AZ).

The vote carried two notable crossovers: Democratic YES votes from Sen. Fetterman D-PA and Sen. Martin Heinrich D-NM. On the Republican side, Sen. Rand Paul R-KY cast the lone GOP dissent, citing constitutional concerns about executive branch appointments.

Mullin, a first-term Oklahoma senator, vacates his Senate seat to take the Cabinet role — adding another vacancy to the 119th Congress's roster. He replaces former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. The confirmation is complete; Mullin now leads a department that Congress has still not fully funded. For a full breakdown of Mullin's voting record and confirmation data, see CVT's Mullin Confirmation Scorecard.

The Two-Track Deal — What Happens Next

With DHS funding stalled and both chambers heading into spring recess, Speaker Mike Johnson R-LA and Senate Majority Leader Thune announced on April 1 what they're calling a "two-track" approach:

• Track 1: Pass the Senate's bipartisan version of DHS funding — which funds the department but excludes ICE and Customs and Border Protection — through the House. This requires Democratic votes in the House, since House Freedom Caucus members oppose splitting ICE funding from the rest of DHS.
• Track 2: Fund ICE and CBP separately through the budget reconciliation package, which requires only a simple majority in the Senate and avoids the 60-vote cloture threshold.

The key obstacle: Johnson will need Democratic votes in the House to pass Track 1. That's a difficult political ask, given that most House Democrats have opposed the bill in every form it's come to the floor in.

The Senate placed S. 4277 (a standalone ICE funding bill) on the legislative calendar on April 2 during a pro forma session, then adjourned until April 6. The House's next session with scheduled floor business is April 14. No vote on the final DHS resolution is expected before then.

Bottom line: DHS remains partially unfunded. The shutdown is not over. Congress has left town without resolving it. The two-track deal is a framework, not a law.

Three Other Votes Worth Watching

Iran War Powers — 47–53 (Vote #69, March 24)

The Senate voted 47–53 to reject a motion to discharge S.J.Res. 116 from the Foreign Relations Committee. The resolution, if passed, would have directed the removal of U.S. Armed Forces from hostilities against Iran without an explicit congressional authorization. The motion failed — but the 47-vote coalition is significant: it included all 45 Senate Democrats plus Sen. Angus King I-ME and Sen. Rand Paul R-KY.

Sen. Fetterman D-PA was the lone Democrat to vote NO, joining 52 Republicans in tabling the motion. The full vote record is available here.

VA Reproductive Health Rule — Blocked 48–50 (Vote #72, March 25)

The Senate voted 48–50 on a motion to proceed to S.J.Res. 103, a Congressional Review Act resolution to disapprove the VA's rule on reproductive health services. The motion failed — but barely. Sen. Lisa Murkowski R-AK and Sen. Susan Collins R-ME crossed the aisle to vote YES with Democrats, nearly producing a majority. The vote record is here.

Voter ID Amendment Cloture — 53–47 (Vote #73, March 26)

The Senate voted 53–47 on cloture for S.Amdt. 4732 (Husted), which would have added a strict photo ID requirement to the SAVE Act (S. 1383). The amendment would also have eliminated most mail-in voting. The vote was strictly along party lines: all 53 Republicans voted YES; all Democrats voted NO. The amendment needed 60 votes to advance — it fell seven short. See the full roll call here.

By the Numbers: March 2026 Legislative Stats

What to Watch When Congress Returns

Both chambers return to Washington the week of April 13–14. The primary legislative test will be whether Speaker Johnson can cobble together a House majority for Track 1 — the bipartisan DHS bill that passed the Senate but excludes ICE and CBP funding. That requires winning over some House Democrats while keeping enough of his own conference on board to survive a Freedom Caucus revolt.

On the Senate side, the reconciliation package remains the vehicle for ICE and CBP funding, but reconciliation timelines stretch into late spring at the earliest. The 119th Congress's spring recess ends without a resolution to its defining funding crisis — and the political pressure on both parties will only intensify when federal workers report back that another week's pay has been missed.

CVT will track every floor vote, every procedural motion, and every crossover as both chambers return to work. For background on the DHS standoff, see our full breakdown: 39 Days Without Pay: How Congress's DHS Funding Standoff Left 60,000 Federal Workers in Limbo.