House Republicans reject Senate DHS bill, Trump signs TSA directive : NPR

The Department of Homeland Security says Transportation Security Administration workers may obtain paychecks as quickly as Monday, following a memo signed by President Trump. Trump’s unilateral motion comes as House Republican management rejected the newest deal to finish the DHS shutdown.

Late Friday, the House voted to approve a stop-gap invoice to fund DHS by way of May 22. The vote was 213-203, with three Democrats voting with Republicans. The vote successfully ensures that the continuing shutdown at DHS continues with no clear finish in sight.

The House invoice is at odds with a measure handed early Friday by the Senate that will have restored funding for almost all of DHS, however not for immigration enforcement operations. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., dismissed the Senate measure on Friday as “a joke.”

But the House plan has no apparent path to passage within the Senate, the place lawmakers have already left Washington for a deliberate recess. Furthermore, Democrats have voted to oppose any plan that funds Immigration and Customs Enforcement with out reforms.

Opposing paths ahead

The Senate invoice, handed within the early hours of Friday morning, doesn’t embody extra funding for ICE or Border Patrol — and it doesn’t embody any of the calls for Democrats made to restrict the ways of federal immigration officers. But Republicans within the House met Friday after the laws handed and rejected the plan.

“This gambit that was done last night is a joke,” Johnson informed reporters on the Capitol.

Johnson informed reporters that Trump supported the House plan.

“I spoke to the president a few moments ago, he understands exactly what we’re doing and why. And he supports it,” Johnson stated.

Johnson additionally referred to Trump’s promise to pay TSA brokers by way of govt motion as a near-term strategy to alleviate backups at airports throughout the nation. in a post on X Friday afternoonDHS blamed the shutdown on Democrats and stated that following Trump’s directive, “TSA has immediately begun the process of paying its workforce.” It was not instantly clear the place that cash would come from—and whether or not such a transfer was authorized.

The DHS funding lapse compelled tens of hundreds of workers to work with out pay or give up, and resulted in lengthy waits at some airports amid peak spring break journey.

Ha Nguyen McNeill, the TSA performing administrator, informed lawmakers at a listening to on Wednesday that absences are as excessive as 40% in some airports and greater than 480 TSA officers have stepped down throughout the shutdown. “We are really concerned about our security posture and what the long-term impacts of this shutdown is going to have on the workforce and our ability to carry out this mission,” McNeill stated.

Where Democrats stand

For weeks, Democrats have refused to help funding for DHS after federal officers killed two US residents in Minneapolis.

The newest Senate bundle would have allowed Democrats in that chamber to fund operations like TSA, the Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, whereas nonetheless urgent for extra guardrails on immigration enforcement officers.

“Democrats held firm in our opposition that Donald Trump’s rogue and deadly militia should not get more funding without serious reforms, and we will continue to fight for those reforms,” ​​Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer stated on the ground. “I’m very proud of our Democratic caucus. Throughout it all, Senate Democrats stood united — no wavering, no backing down. We held the line.”

Even some Democrats have warned {that a} funding settlement with out the coverage modifications they’re in search of diminishes their leverage. Senate Republicans have indicated that the time to barter has now handed.

“We could be standing here right now passing a funding bill with a list of reforms if Democrats had made the smallest effort to actually reach an agreement, but they didn’t,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune stated on the ground early Friday morning. “It is now clear to everyone that Democrats didn’t actually want a solution, they wanted an issue.”

The division has been working with out common appropriations for greater than a month. But some divisions, like ICE, have continued to perform because of about $75 billion supplied by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Republicans handed final summer season. Others, together with the TSA, have relied on workers working with out pay.

Negotiations underneath stress

All week, prime Republicans opposed funding DHS piecemeal. On Thursday, Thune stated Republicans had delivered Democrats a last provide: fund all of DHS, together with ICE, besides the division accountable for enforcement and removing operations.

At least a handful of Democrats appeared open to this selection, however frightened the administration would use funding for different ICE divisions for enforcement and removing operations. Throughout the day, negotiators shuttled between the Senate chamber and Thune’s workplace, buying and selling language.

But by the night, legislators had been nonetheless struggling to achieve an settlement to finish the deadlock, at the same time as many considered the worsening state of affairs on the nation’s airports as untenable.

Earlier within the week, Trump insisted that any DHS funding deal additionally contains the voting regulation overhaul he desires forward of the midterms, often known as the Save America Act.

Not lengthy after Trump’s TSA announcement Thursday evening, Thune informed reporters about an settlement to fund most of DHS aside from ICE and Border Patrol. The laws was permitted by voice vote after 2 am with only a few Senators on the ground.