U.S. Coast Guard Gunner’s Mate 3rd Class Dillon Rutter, right, calls weapon conditions for Coast Guard crew members operating a .50 caliber machine gun during a live-fire training exercise aboard the USCGC Clarence Sutphin Jr. in the Arabian Gulf in December 2025. (Lindsay Lair/U.S. Navy)
WASHINGTON — The congressional impasse over funding the Department of Homeland Security, which has forced the Coast Guard into a shutdown for three weeks, is not expected to ease with the firing of department chief Kristi Noem.
Democrats say President Donald Trump’s decision to remove Noem from her secretary post “changes nothing” about the shutdown, which began on Feb. 15 after Democrats demanded restrictions on agents carrying out Trump’s immigration crackdown.
“I am so happy that one of the worst administrative leaders I’ve ever seen is gone,” said Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. “But the agency itself is still reckless and out of control, and we should not be funding it until these issues are addressed.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., also said Noem’s firing was “not sufficient.”
“We need a change in policy and that has to be bold, dramatic, transformational and meaningful,” he said.
The White House and Democrats have traded proposals on potential reforms for weeks, but the negotiations have shown no recent signs of progress.
Republicans this week raised alarm that the funding lapse has left the Coast Guard, which operates under the Department of Homeland Security in peace time, without the resources it needs to support escalating military operations in the Middle East.
“Coast Guard men and women — including those in harm’s way in Bahrain — are completing missions without full resources behind them,” said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
Bahrain has come under heavy retaliatory fire from Iran after the U.S. and Israel launched coordinated strikes against Tehran. Missile and drone strikes have hit residential buildings as well as the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters, the main hub for coordinating naval operations in the Middle East.
Military facilities in Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Jordan have also been targeted.
Initially deployed to Bahrain during the Iraq War in 2003, the Coast Guard has since maintained a permanent presence in the country with about 300 personnel to support maritime operations for U.S. Naval Forces Central Command.
Both Republican-led chambers of Congress voted on spending bills Thursday to reopen the Department of Homeland Security and restore full funding to the Coast Guard.
The Senate failed to advance the legislation over Democratic opposition while the House a few hours later passed a funding bill in a 221-209 vote that will fail to get through the Senate absent a bipartisan deal.
Efforts by Democrats to fund all parts of the department except immigration enforcement operations were shot down by Republicans.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Thursday condemned Democrats for stalling funding “in the midst of rapidly mounting crises,” while Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., expressed hope that Noem’s departure will mark a “huge development” for negotiations.
In the meantime, the Coast Guard is continuing its most critical national security missions, including law enforcement and security patrols.
Service members were able to receive their most recent paychecks despite fears from lawmakers that they would go unpaid but scores of civilian personnel are working without pay. Non-essential activities, such as some personnel training and equipment maintenance, have been halted.
“These limitations on our national security capabilities should concern us all,” Cole said.
