House Passes DHS Funding Bill, Averting an Agency Shutdown

On March 3, the House of Representatives passed a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security through the end of this fiscal year, averting a partial shutdown of the agency. On March 4, the bill was signed into law by President Obama. 

The bill was passed with no immigration provisions, despite months of debate in the House and Speaker John Boehner’s vow to block the President’s executive actions. As we have reported, however, the Administration’s planned expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and introduction of a similar program for parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents remain suspended due to litigation. 

What This Means for Employers and Foreign Nationals 

A shutdown of DHS operations was not expected to significantly affect immigration processing, which is funded by fees rather than congressional appropriations. But there were concerns that a suspension of back office functions at USCIS could have delayed case processing, especially if a shutdown extended into the busy H-1B cap filing period, which starts on April 1.

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