WASHINGTON — House and Senate Republican leaders jointly announced a plan Wednesday that they said would end the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security that caused major airport delays.

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“In the coming days, Republicans in the Senate and House will be following through on the President’s directive by fully funding the entire Department of Homeland Security on two parallel tracks: through the appropriations process and through the reconciliation process,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in a statement.

The two leaders were vague about the exact plan, but it appears to closely resemble the Senate’s preferred path from Friday.

Johnson and Thune heavily implied that it would be for the Senate to, once again, pass a bill it approved unanimously last week, which it could try to do as early as Thursday.

It would fund all of DHS except ICE and Customs and Border Protection, which Democrats won’t agree to fund without reforms to immigration enforcement operations. Those two agencies already have separate funding.

House Republican leaders trashed that bill and rejected it Friday, but they now appear ready to back down and accept the Senate plan. They would have to vote to pass it through the House.

GOP leadership had no immediate comment on the timing for a vote. Both chambers are scheduled to be on recess until April 13.

Then Republicans would fund ICE and CBP in a separate party-line “budget reconciliation” bill that could bypass a filibuster and get approved without any Democratic votes. The timing for that is even less clear.

Johnson and Thune said the “two-track” plan would “fully reopen the Department, make sure all federal workers are paid, and specifically fund immigration enforcement and border security for the next three years so that those law-enforcement activities can continue uninhibited.”

A White House official told NBC News that the administration supports the Johnson-Thune plan.

Earlier Wednesday, President Donald Trump called on Republicans to pass the party-line bill “no later than June 1st.” He threw the earlier plans to reopen DHS into chaos last week when he declined to comment on the Senate bill, which led House Republicans to reject it.

DHS has been shut down for more than a month, with employees for the TSA, FEMA and other agencies going for weeks without pay. Trump signed an executive order last week to pay TSA employees, but the legality and length of that plan are murky. Thousands of civilian Coast Guard employees and other DHS workers are still not being paid.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., slammed Republicans for having “derailed a bipartisan agreement” for days, “making American families pay the price for their dysfunction.”

“Throughout this fight, Senate Democrats never wavered. We were clear from the start: fund critical security, protect Americans, and no blank check for reckless ICE and Border Patrol enforcement,” he said Wednesday. “We were united, held the line, and refused to let Republican chaos win.”

On Friday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said, “House Democrats are prepared to support the bill to end the Trump-Republican shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, make sure TSA agents are paid, stand up for FEMA and for the Coast Guard, for our cyber security professionals, and stop inconveniencing Americans.”

More than 23 million Americans are currently enrolled in Obamacare plans, and nearly all of them will face higher health care costs next year if extra federal funding for subsidies expires, as scheduled, on Dec. 31.

Share of population enrolled in Obamacare plans

Source: KFF

Note: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin and Wyoming have not adopted the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion.

The New York Times

Democrats in Congress are withholding their votes on a government spending bill to demand that Republicans extend these subsidies, which lower the cost of insurance for people who buy their own health care coverage in marketplaces established by the Affordable Care Act. Since Congress introduced the extra funding in 2021, enrollment has doubled.

These Americans live nearly everywhere in the country, but their numbers are especially concentrated in a handful of red states whose governments have declined to expand Medicaid programs to cover poor, childless adults.

Fifty-seven percent of people with this type of insurance live in Republican congressional districts.

Obamacare enrollment rates, by congressional district

Districts represented by Democrats

Districts represented by Republicans

Source: KFF

The New York Times

The difference is driven by extra enrollment in states that hadn’t expanded Medicaid since the Affordable Care Act encouraged states to do so in 2014. Obamacare was designed to cover the poorest Americans with Medicaid and then offer subsidies for people who earned more. There is a small share of the income distribution that overlaps; those people are eligible for Medicaid where it is available, and subsidies where it is not. As a result, more low-income Americans are eligible for subsidies in states that don’t offer Medicaid to all poor adults.

Since subsidies became more generous in 2021, overall enrollment has more than tripled in six red states: Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia and West Virginia. Of that group, only West Virginia expanded Medicaid.

Obamacare coverage has become especially widespread in south Florida, where there is a large concentration of low-wage workers and early retirees.

Most of the congressional districts with the highest enrollments are in states that Trump won in the presidential election, but not all are represented by Republicans in Congress.

Districts with the highest Obamacare enrollment rates

Note: Table only includes districts with rates 15 percent or higher. Margin of victory not shown for representatives who ran uncontested or faced another member of the same party on the November ballot.

The New York Times

Americans with relatively low incomes make up the largest group of enrollees by far. Nearly half of consumers nationwide earn less than 150 percent of the federal poverty level, around $24,000 for a single person in most states or around $48,000 for a family of four. These people tend to work in low-wage jobs that don’t offer health insurance, have part-time employment, or are freelancers who work gig jobs.

The extra subsidies are especially generous for this group. As long as they choose one of the two lowest-cost plans in their market, they don’t have to make any monthly payments for their premiums. Critics of the subsidies think these are so generous for this group that they have invited fraud. If the subsidies expire, the share of premiums for this group will go up to around $27 to $82 a month.

Obamacare enrollment, by income range

Income range	Share
100–150% of federal poverty level Individuals: $15,650–$23,475 Household of four: $32,150–$48,225	45% 10.9 million people
150–200% Individuals: $23,475–$31,300 Household of four: $48,225–$64,300	18% 4.3 million
200–250% Individuals: $31,300–$39,125 Household of four: $64,300–$80,375	10% 2.5 million
250–300% Individuals: $39,125–$46,950 Household of four: $80,375–$96,450	7% 1.7 million
300–400% Individuals: $46,950–$62,600 Household of four: $96,450–$128,600	7% 1.8 million
400–500% Individuals: $62,600–$78,250 Household of four: $128,600–$160,750	3% 724,961
500% or above Individuals: $78,250 or above Household of four: $160,750 or above	4% 911,808

Source: KFF

Note: Two groups, the group of people below the federal poverty level and the group labeled as “Unknown” in the data, were excluded from the table. They make up 2.2% and 3.8% of total enrollees.

The New York Times

Americans who earn more than 400 percent of the poverty level, around $63,000 for a single person in most states or $129,000 for a family of four, make up a much smaller share of the market, around 7 percent. This group tends to include people who are self-employed or who work for small businesses, and early retirees — all of whom lack work-based options.

In dollar terms, the expiring subsidies will make the biggest difference for this group. With the extra subsidies, their payments are capped at 8.5 percent of their income. Without action, they will have to pay the full cost of their insurance next year, more than $2,000 a month for older people in the most expensive markets.

Some conservative critics of the extra subsidies argue this group earns enough that they should be expected to pay their insurance premiums without help.

Without the extra subsidies, analysts expect that millions of Americans enrolled in Obamacare will drop their insurance coverage or face higher prices. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that around two million more people will become uninsured next year without the extra financial help, and the number could rise to 3.8 million by 2035. Other analyses have estimated even larger reductions in coverage.

Exactly who will become uninsured is difficult to know. But Cynthia Cox, a vice president at KFF, a health care research group, said the losses were most likely to occur in the places where signups had risen the most since the extra subsidies became law in 2021.

Change in enrollment from 2020 to 2025

State	Change in enrollment		2025 total	Margin
Tex.		+255%	4 million	R+14
Miss.		+242%	338,159	R+23
W.Va.		+235%	67,113	R+42
La.		+234%	292,994	R+22
Ga.		+228%	1.5 million	R+2
Tenn.		+221%	642,867	R+30
Ala.		+198%	477,838	R+31
Ohio		+197%	583,443	R+11
S.C.		+195%	631,948	R+18
Ariz.		+177%	423,025	R+6
Ark.		+159%	166,639	R+31
Ind.		+155%	359,240	R+19
Iowa		+151%	136,833	R+13
Fla.		+147%	4.7 million	R+13
Kan.		+133%	200,046	R+16

+ Show all states

Source: KFF

Note: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin and Wyoming have not adopted the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion. The margin of victory in the presidential election in 2024 is shown.

The New York Times

Authorities claim Frost, 67, specifically targeted Republican activists and conservative Christian investors through a network of right-wing media outlets. The Georgia financial firm’s now-defunct website calls out its advertisements “as heard on” conservative media including Erick Erickson, Hugh Hewitt, and Charlie Kirk’s shows. First Liberty abruptly shut down late last month posting a note to clients on its website stating that its investments, payments, and programs were “indefinitely suspended.”

“First Liberty is cooperating with federal authorities as part of an effort to accomplish an orderly wind-up of the business,” the message states. “First Liberty employees are not authorized to make any further communications at this time regarding the ongoing situation, and no one at the company will be available to answer phone calls or respond to email inquiries.”

Attempts to reach Frost were unsuccessful. 

According to the complaint, Frost and First Liberty raised at least $140 million from the sale of loan participation agreements and promissory notes to at least 300 investors. The alleged scheme began back in 2014 with Frost raising capital through friends and family. They were first offered loan participation agreements, which are contracts where investors pool money together to fund a single loan with each participant owning a percentage. They were later offered promissory notes—basically IOUs— in which investors were lending money to the company itself. Brant allegedly told investors the funds would be used to make short-term bridge loans at high interest rates. 

Frost and First Liberty allegedly told investors 100% of the proceeds from loan agreements and promissory notes would be used to fund bridge loans and that investors would be reap gains from the repayment of the bridge loans and the interest paid on them. The friends and family program offered 14% to 18% returns, and the notes an annual return of 8% to 13%. The SEC claims Frost told investors orally he did not take fees out of the investor funds. 

The SEC’s complaint alleges nearly all of these representations were false. In 2021, First Liberty began operating as a Ponzi scheme, the complaint states, with about 80% of the interest and payments to investors sourced from new investor funds—the hallmark of a Ponzi scheme. 

“The promise of a high rate of return on an investment is a red flag that should make all potential investors think twice or maybe even three times before investing their money,” said Justin C. Jeffries, Associate Director of Enforcement for the SEC’s Atlanta Regional Office in a statement. “Unfortunately, we’ve seen this movie before—bad actors luring investors with promises of seemingly over-generous returns—and it does not end well.”

In 2024, the SEC claims Frost expanded the financial firm’s reach by offering and selling the promissory notes to the public on the radio, the firm’s website and on podcasts and other programs. The company marketed itself as a fundamental piece of what it called the “patriot economy.”

But, according to the SEC, the alleged scheme had already unraveled. First Liberty allegedly operated at a deficit each year from 2021 through May 30, 2025 and instead functioned as a Ponzi operation. The regulator claims Frost even allegedly misled current investors about the security of their existing investments to coax more funding out of them. 

During the alleged scheme, the SEC accused Frost of living lavishly off investors’ assets. 

Frost allegedly spent $230,000 to rent a vacation home in Kennebunkport, Maine and $140,000 on jewelry. He also allegedly snagged a $20,800 Patek Philippe watch with investor money and doled out $335,000 to a rare coin dealer. He also allegedly paid $2.4 million on his credit cards with investor funds and made $570,000 in political donations. 

The SEC alleged that nine days after commission staffers interviewed Frost, he withdrew $100,000 from company accounts containing investor funds and wrote $210,875 in checks from company accounts to a business that specializes in selling gold coins. The SEC has frozen Frost’s assets.

Messages to Erickson, Hewitt, and Kirk were not immediately returned. 

In a message on the website, First Liberty wrote: “First Liberty hopes to provide additional information and updates in the near future regarding the status of the company’s efforts to effectuate an orderly wind-up of the business.”

His decision creates a political opportunity for Democrats seeking to bolster their numbers in the 2026 midterm elections, creating a wide-open Senate race in a state that has long been a contested battleground. It could also make Tillis a wild card in a party where few lawmakers are willing to risk Trump’s wrath by opposing his agenda or actions. Trump had already been threatening him with a primary challenge.

“In Washington over the last few years, it’s become increasingly evident that leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise, and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species,” Tillis said in a lengthy statement.

Tillis, who would have been up for a third term, said he was proud of his career in public service but acknowledged the difficult political environment for those who buck their party and go it alone.

“I look forward to having the pure freedom to call the balls and strikes as I see fit and representing the great people of North Carolina to the best of my ability,” Tillis said in a statement.

Republicans hold a 53-47 edge in the Senate.

Trump, in social posts, had berated Tillis for being one of two Republican senators who voted on Saturday night against advancing the massive tax bill.

The Republican president accused Tillis of seeking publicity with his “no” vote and threatened to campaign against him, accusing the senator of doing nothing to help his constituents after last year’s devastating floods in western North Carolina from Hurricane Helene.

“Tillis is a talker and complainer, NOT A DOER,” Trump wrote.

The North Carolina Republican Party chairman, Jason Simmons, said the party wishes Tillis well and “will hold this seat for Republicans in 2026.” Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the chairman of the campaign arm for Senate Republicans, did not mention Tillis in a statement but said the party’s winning streak in North Carolina will continue. Scott noted that Trump won the state three times.

Democrats expressed confidence about their prospects.

Former Rep. Wiley Nickel, who announced his candidacy in April, said he was ready for any Republican challenger.

“I’ve flipped a tough seat before and we’re going to do it again,” Nickel said in a statement.

Some said Tillis’ decision is another sign of the dramatic transformation of the Republican Party under Trump, with few lawmakers critical of the president or his agenda remaining in office.

It “proves there is no space within the Republican Party to dissent over taking health care away from 11.8 million people,” said Lauren French, spokesperson for the Senate Majority PAC, a political committee aligned with the chamber’s Democratic members.

Tillis rose to prominence in North Carolina when, as a second-term state House member, he quit his IBM consultant job and led the GOP’s recruitment and fundraising efforts in the chamber for the 2010 elections. Republicans won majorities in the House and Senate for the first time in 140 years.

Tillis was later elected as state House speaker and helped enact conservative policies on taxes, gun rights, regulations and abortion while serving in the role for four years. He also helped push a state constitutional referendum to ban gay marriage, which was approved by voters in 2012 but was ultimately struck down by the courts as unconstitutional.

In 2014, Tillis helped flip control of the U.S. Senate to the GOP after narrowly defeating Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan. During his more than a decade in office, he championed issues such as mental health and substance abuse recovery, Medicaid expansion and support for veterans.

As a more moderate Republican, Tillis became known for his willingness to work across the aisle on some issues. That got him into trouble with his party at times, most notably in 2023 when North Carolina Republicans voted to censure him over several matters, including his challenges to certain immigration policies and his gun policy record.

“Sometimes those bipartisan initiatives got me into trouble with my own party,” Tillis said, “but I wouldn’t have changed a single one.”

Depreciation allowance for qualified production property

Allow immediate deductibility of 100 percent of the cost of certain new factories and improvements

$148 bil.

Business interest deduction

Change calculation of adjusted taxable income

$40 bil.

Depreciation allowance for certain property

Allow immediate expensing of 100 percent of the cost of qualified property acquired from 2025 to 2030

$37 bil.

Expensing of certain depreciable business assets

Increase dollar limitations

$25 bil.

Deduction of domestic research and experimental expenditures

Allow immediate deductibility for expenditures paid or incurred from 2025 to 2030

$23 bil.

Charitable contributions to organizations with scholarships

Provide new tax credit for gifts to organizations that provide scholarships. For calendar years 2026-2029.

$20 bil.

“MAGA accounts”

Create new savings accounts for children, with a government contribution of $1,000 per child born from 2024 to 2028

$17 bil.

Small manufacturing businesses

Change accounting rules

$15 bil.

Low-income housing credit

Modifies credit allocations and bond-financing thresholds, and gives a basis boost to Indian and rural areas

$14 bil.

Reporting threshold for payments

Increase thresholds for reporting payments to independent contractors and other payees

$13 bil.

Employer payments of student loans

Make the exclusion from gross income permanent and index for inflation

$11 bil.

Opportunity zones

Renew and make changes to the existing program

$5.5 bil.

Adoption tax credit

Make credit partially refundable and change rules for tribal governments

$2.3 bil.

Interactions between provisions

$1.8 bil.

Firearm silencers

Eliminate transfer tax

$1.4 bil.

Loans secured by rural or agricultural real estate

Partially exclude interest on certain loans

$1.1 bil.

Certain income earned in the U.S. Virgin Islands

Exempt income for the purposes of a “GILTI” deduction

$0.9 bil.

Employer-provided child care credit

Permanently increase, add a new separate amount for small businesses, index for inflation

$0.7 bil.

Repeal excise tax on indoor tanning

$0.4 bil.

Sound recording productions

Increase ability to expense certain costs of producing sound recordings

$0.2 bil.

529 savings plans

Expand allowed expenses

$0.1 bil.

Disaster-related personal casualty losses

Extend rules

$0.1 bil.

Certain purchases of employee-owned stock

Disregard for purposes of foundation tax on excess business holdings

—

Exclusion of research income from unrelated business taxable income

Limit to publicly available research

—

I.R.S. Direct File program

Replace program with a public-private partnership to offer free tax filing

—

Increase penalties for unauthorized disclosures of taxpayer information

—

Postpone tax deadlines for those wrongfully detained abroad

—

Restrict regulation of contingency fees

—

Terminate tax-exempt status of certain organizations

Organizations that “provided more than a minor amount of material support or resources to a listed terrorist organization”

—

Wagering losses

Permanently extend limit

—

Qualified bicycle commuting reimbursement

Permanently eliminate the exclusion

–$0.2 bil.

American opportunity and lifetime learning credits

Require that students or taxpayers filing on behalf of students include their Social Security Numbers on tax returns

–$0.9 bil.

Sports franchises

Limit amortization deductions for certain sports-related intangibles

–$1.0 bil.

Increase penalties connected to Covid-related employee retention credits

–$1.6 bil.

Unrelated business taxable income of a tax-exempt organization

Increase by amount of certain fringe benefit expenses for which deduction is disallowed

–$2.7 bil.

Name and logo royalties

Treat as unrelated business taxable income

–$3.8 bil.

Tax on excess compensation within tax-exempt organizations

Expand application of tax

–$3.8 bil.

Mortgage, casualty loss and other itemized deductions

Permanently lower the home mortgage interest deduction to the first $750,000 in debt, limit the casualty loss deduction to losses resulting from federally declared disasters and terminate miscellaneous itemized deductions

–$6.2 bil.

Investment income of certain private colleges and universities

Increase excise tax for wealthier institutions

–$6.7 bil.

Excise tax for tobacco products

Limit drawback of taxes paid with respect to substituted merchandise

–$12 bil.

Moving expenses exclusion and deduction

Permanently eliminate both, except for active-duty military

–$14 bil.

Earned income tax credit

Make changes to prevent duplicate claims and create a program integrity task force

–$15 bil.

Compensation paid to certain high-earning employees

Change deduction limitation rules

–$16 bil.

Investment income of tax-exempt private foundations

Increase excise tax rates

–$16 bil.

Charitable contributions made by corporations

Establish a floor of one percent of taxable income on deduction

–$17 bil.

Excise tax on money sent abroad

Impose new excise tax on remittance transfers by those who are not U.S. citizens or U.S. nationals

–$22 bil.

Limitation on excess business losses by noncorporate taxpayers

Make permanent

–$27 bil.

De minimis entry privilege

Repeal the privilege, which currently allows shipments under $800 to enter the U.S. duty-free

–$39 bil.

New limitation on itemized deductions

Permanently change

–$41 bil.

Raise certain taxes to retaliate against “unfair foreign taxes”

–$116 bil.

State and local tax deduction

Permanently cap itemized deductions for state and local taxes at $30,000 per household. The current cap is set to expire next year, so any cap imposed would save the government money.

–$916 bil.