By Richard Cowan and David Morgan
WASHINGTON, April 2 (Reuters) – Federal funding for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security remained in limbo on Thursday despite the Senate clearing the way for the House of Representatives to pass legislation that would end a nearly seven-week partial shutdown.
The measure provides no additional funding for immigration law enforcement activities that already are robustly funded.
The House held a brief session without acting upon the legislation that was passed by the Senate late last week.
The House is next scheduled to meet on Monday.
House Speaker Mike Johnson was scheduled to hold a call with his rank-and-file later on Thursday to discuss next steps.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, speaking to a near-empty chamber, cleared the way for progress on ending the DHS funding fight by killing a 60-day, stopgap bill that had been passed by the House but had no chance of getting enough support to pass the Senate.
The Senate ignored that bill on Friday and began a recess that telegraphed its opposition to the measure.
Meantime, Senate and House Republican leaders announced on Wednesday that they had reached a deal to finally end the DHS shutdown. But it was unclear whether House Republican rank-and-file would support that agreement.
House passage of the Senate bill would send it to President Donald Trump for signing into law.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan and David Morgan; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Chizu Nomiyama)
