JAMES CARTER: Congress Has a Plan. Several, Actually

Spring in Washington usually brings cherry blossoms, warmer weather, and a familiar reminder that Congress has a habit of taking on more than it can neatly resolve. This year is no different. What stands out is how much is moving at once, and how much now depends on Republicans keeping their strategy aligned with President Donald Trump.

This week will say a great deal about how the rest of the summer unfolds, especially in the House as it decides whether to line up with the Senate’s plan for finishing fiscal year 2026 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding.

The Senate has already sent over a partially funded DHS bill that leaves out key accounts for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Senate leadership, with reported backing from Trump, wants to pair that bill with a two-step reconciliation strategy to finish the job.

The first step would focus narrowly on the unresolved DHS accounts and could fund them for up to three years, or even through the remainder of the President’s term. That would mark a notable shift in how America funds the agencies most directly responsible for border security and immigration enforcement.

That is the point. Trump campaigned on restoring control at the border and giving law enforcement the tools to do the job. A longer-term funding structure for ICE and CBP is the kind of governing choice that turns campaign promises into policy. Instead of lurching from one short-term funding fight to the next, Republicans would be using their majority to support a more durable approach.

Of course, that strategy raises two practical questions. Politically, some Republicans want the money formally offset, even if it replaces spending that would otherwise be renewed every year. Institutionally, reconciliation instructions go to authorizing committees, not appropriators, which means the usual appropriations process would give up some control over homeland security funding.

But that is not a reason to retreat. It is a reason to use the process deliberately. If the goal is stronger border security and a more disciplined government, then the process should serve the outcome.