Historic Shutdown Ends But Yassamin Ansari Says the Damage Was Avoidable

After 76 days of political gridlock, the longest federal department shutdown in American history was finally over, and Representative Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) had plenty to say about how it got there.

President Donald Trump signed legislation Thursday to reopen most of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ending a funding lapse that had pushed agencies like the Coast Guard, FEMA, and the TSA to the brink of financial collapse.

Payroll funding for those agencies had been days away from running dry, leaving tens of thousands of federal workers in limbo for over two months.

For Rep. Ansari, the relief was real, but so was the frustration. Democrats, she argued, had a solution sitting on the table the entire time. A bill separating TSA, FEMA, and the Coast Guard from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had been ready for two months and passed the Senate unanimously over a month ago.

"The hard working people who work for those agencies could have gotten paid a month ago," she said, placing blame directly on House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), whom she described as leading with "crazy, chaotic, incompetent leadership."

Final Package

House Republicans had blocked the Senate bill from advancing, arguing that passing it without funding for ICE and CBP would amount to caving to Democratic demands.

The final agreement funds most of DHS immediately, while ICE and CBP will be handled separately through the budget reconciliation process, a pathway that lets Republicans move forward without Democratic support in the Senate.

Additionally, the package that ultimately passed funds all of DHS, except ICE and Border Patrol, through September, the end of the fiscal year. Those two agencies will be reconciled separately.

The deal came as reports show the Trump administration had nearly drained the $10 billion fund it had been using to cover DHS paychecks, with Secretary Markwayne Mullin warning the money would run out within days.

The legislation includes some limited guardrails on immigration enforcement tactics, but none of the broader reforms Democrats pushed for, including banning agents from wearing masks during operations or requiring judicial warrants for arrests and for entry onto private property.

Beyond Package

Beyond the shutdown, Ansari pushed back hard on the Farm Bill that passed the House Thursday as well, saying it failed to restore SNAP benefit cuts that impact "more than 50% of Arizonans who were on SNAP."

She also criticized the bill for not addressing what she called President Trump's "illegal tariffs" and their effect on the state's farming communities.

For Ansari, one resolved shutdown doesn't signal progress, it signals how much ground there is still left to cover.