House Democratic leaders and much of their caucus expressed support for the Senate-passed bill to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security as they emerged from a closed-door meeting Friday.

“The only thing standing between ending this chaos or not are House Republicans,” Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said. “There’s a bipartisan bill that emerged from the Senate with uniform support, and it should be brought to the floor immediately so we can pay TSA agents, so we can end the chaos at airports across the country and stop inconveniencing millions of Americans.”

Democrats say they want to end the six-week DHS shutdown Friday, when TSA agents were slated to be paid, rather than drag things through the weekend and potentially into a scheduled two-week recess. Multiple Democrats said they are encouraged the Senate’s legislation resembles a proposal led by the top Democratic appropriator, Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, to fund DHS without including immigration enforcement agencies.

As of Friday morning, 207 House Democrats had signed on to an effort to force a floor vote on that bill.

“I believe, and my colleagues believe, that we need to get the government funded,” Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said. “What the Senate has done is essentially the bill that we proposed.”

Several Democrats left the door open to supporting procedural measures allowing the bill to pass in the event Republican leaders cannot unite their own members to pass it. Many GOP lawmakers expressed anger with the Senate product Friday, throwing its future in doubt.

“We are willing to do whatever is necessary to pay TSA agents to end the chaos and to stop inconveniencing millions of Americans,” Jeffries said.

Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to build Republican support for a short-term bill that would fund all Department of Homeland Security operations through May 22, after the Senate passed a deal overnight that left out money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and some dollars for Customs and Border Protection.

The Louisiana Republican shared the plan on a House GOP Conference call shortly after noon Friday, honoring a commitment he made to members of the House Freedom Caucus earlier in the day that he would pursue a path out of the extended DHS shutdown that didn’t involve punting on funding for immigration enforcement activities.

There is no guarantee this plan will have support in the House, where GOP centrists are already balking at the proposal, according to four people granted anonymity to share their direct knowledge of the trajectory of negotiations Friday afternoon.

It’s also highly unlikely this gambit would pass in the Senate, which has already left town for a two-week recess. Republicans would need to rely on the other chamber approving the measure through a unanimous consent agreement — and Senate Democrats are sure to object.

But the House Rules Committee is expected to meet Friday evening to tee up a process for voting on a eight-week DHS stopgap, with the expectation GOP leaders will schedule a vote on final passage for Saturday.

Speaker Mike Johnson declined to say Friday whether he will keep the House in over the weekend to pass the Department of Homeland Security funding agreement the Senate approved hours earlier.

“Stay tuned,” the Louisiana Republican told reporters when asked if he was committed to passing the Senate bill, which would fund all of DHS except for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.

Johnson said he would talk through options and work the “will of the conference.” But every path before him is fraught.

Johnson, who said he has not decided on how to advance the bill, has several options.

He could move it through a party-line “rule” vote that would require broad GOP support — an unsure bet at this stage as GOP leaders expect a backlash from ultra-conservatives. His alternative would be to expedite passage through a so-called suspension of the rules, which requires a two-thirds majority vote — a move that could enrage GOP hard-liners.

Johnson is also hamstrung by the fact that procedural rules that House members approved at the start of the 119th Congress does not allow the House to vote on suspension bills on Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

House Rules Chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) and Rep. Richard Hudson, chair of the House GOP’s campaign fundraising arm, met with the speaker Friday and other senior Republicans to plot a path forward.

Conservative House Republicans are livid that the Senate passed the funding deal absent ICE funding and then left town, also without passing the elections overhaul known as the SAVE America Act. GOP hard-liners are pushing for Johnson to attach SAVE and send it back to the Senate.

“We want to solve these problems as quickly as possible, but we also understand this dangerous gambit about not funding the border, securing the border and the ability to deport criminal illegal aliens is a serious problem,” Johnson said.

Centrist House Republicans are itching for the chamber to pass the deal Friday.

“I hope they do,” Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) said.