House Republican Speaker Mike Johnson is working to make the deal brokered by President Donald Trump to reopen the federal government a reality despite tough odds.
With a partial government shutdown officially underway, Johnson is stuck between a rock and a hard place as he operates with ‘a one-vote margin’ amid attempts to unite his party to pass a slew of funding bills through the House.
Johnson told NBC’s Meet The Press moderator Kristen Welker that he was ‘in the Oval Office with the president a few days ago when he was on the phone with [Democrat Minority] Leader Schumer’ as the two negotiated a deal to pass funding measures through the US Senate.
Now, the ball is back in Johnson’s court as both moderate and conservative members of his caucus can defect from the plan passed by the Senate to advance five spending bills for various departments, as well as a two-week stopgap agreement to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
DHS includes both the agencies Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Johnson told Fox News host Shannon Bream on Sunday as well that his caucus wants ‘body cameras on Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. In fact, in the bill that the Democrats are currently rejecting, we put $20 million into that legislation to allow for that.’
However, Democrat demands for unmasking immigration agents and putting names on their uniforms are a harder sell, Johnson argued.
‘When you have people doxing them and targeting them – of course, we don’t want their personal identification out there on the streets,’ Johnson told Bream.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, is operating with ‘a one-vote margin’ amid attempts to unite his party in an effort to pass a slew of funding bills through the House
Masked US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Border Patrol agents are seen in Chicago, Illinois, on October 4, 2025
Protestors rally as part of a ‘Nationwide Shutdown’ demonstration against ICE enforcement on January 30, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota
‘Those two things are conditions that would create further danger’ Johnson argued, adding that ‘Tom Homan told Leader Schumer himself, I was part of the conversation in the Oval Office a few days ago, he said, ‘That’s the one of the demands that I’m not going to be able to implement. I have to protect my officers.’
Homan was dispatched to Minneapolis by Trump following the killing of Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents in Minnesota last week.
During a press Sunday press gaggle at Mar-a-Lago Trump was asked about Border Patrol agents wearing body cameras, to which the President responded: ‘We’ll be talking about that in the near future.’
During a Wednesday press conference on Capitol Hill, Schumer stated that ‘under President Trump, Secretary Noem and Stephen Miller, ICE has been unleashed without guardrails.’
‘They violate constitutional rights all the time and deliberately refuse to coordinate with state and local law enforcement,’ Schumer argued, seemingly ignoring the fact that Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey noted in a post on X that the job of his ‘police is to keep people safe, not enforce fed immigration laws.’
Still, Schumer rolled out a list of things needed to secure a vote for DHS from members of his caucus, which included a request to ‘end roving patrols,’ ‘masks off, body cameras on,’ and a need to ‘tighten the rules governing the use of warrants and require ICE coordination with state and local law enforcement.’
The latest round of federal funding expired at the end of January.
The Senate voted late Friday to approve five appropriations bills and a continuing resolution funding the Department of Homeland Security for two weeks – a concession to Democrats demanding immigration enforcement reforms and a brushback against President Donald Trump‘s aggressive deportation tactics.
US President Donald Trump speaks to the press at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida on February 1, 2026
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat speaks at a press conference with other members of Senate Democratic leadership following a policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on January 28, 2026
The bill passed by a 71-29 margin, with independent Bernie Sanders and five Republicans – Ted Cruz, Ron Johnson, Mike Lee, Rand Paul and Rick Scott – joining 23 Democrats in voting no.
The Departments of Homeland Security, State and Treasury are affected, as well as federal transportation, labor, health, housing and educational programs, along with the IRS and some foreign aid.
The House must approve the new deal, which Johnson does not expect to happen until at least Tuesday.
Democrats and Republicans alike on Capitol Hill have spoken out about the need to rein in the power of President Donald Trump’s DHS.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem herself is on thin ice, as Democrats have called for her to be impeached. Even Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina has attacked Noem, calling her a ‘bureaucratic sycophant.’
‘She is terrifyingly sweet while she is around those she considers her superiors and she sucks up to authority to gain the power she needs to bully those ‘beneath’ her,’ Tillis noted in an X post this week.