The crisis will continue as Congressional leaders have not yet waived their scheduled recess, but the impact may be lessened now that President Trump has signed an order to pay TSA employees.
House and Senate Republicans are out of sync, and DHS funding will not reach them.
With House and Senate Republicans operating on different wavelengths, there is no end in sight for the Department of Homeland Security shutdown.
WASHINGTON – Despite recent momentum in Congress, political infighting within the Republican Party on Capitol Hill means the ongoing Department of Homeland Security shutdown is not over yet and could even extend into mid-April.
The House passed a stopgap funding bill for the agency on March 27, largely along party lines, 213-203. But without Democratic support, the bill is already “defunct on completion,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., declared earlier in the day. This means the bill has virtually no chance of becoming law as it does not have enough votes to pass in the Senate.
Neither the House nor the Senate has yet waived the two-week legislative recess scheduled for Easter and Passover. The senator has already left, the congressman also wants to leave town, and it’s not clear when the shutdown will end.
But the impact on airport routes may be lessened after President Trump signed an order redirecting compensation to TSA employees during the crisis without any help from Congress. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement to USA TODAY that these employees could begin receiving paychecks as early as Monday, March 30.
The fateful bill’s passage after a House Republican revolt sealed the fate of short-lived optimism on Capitol Hill that an overnight bipartisan Senate agreement would quickly end the shutdown that has roiled airport security lines for the past six weeks.
The ping-pong with Congress comes amid mounting pressure on Congress to take action in recent days. But the Senate’s attempts to break the deadlock ultimately sank amid bitter disagreements between House and Senate Republicans.
The Senate solution, agreed to by both Republicans and Democrats in the early morning hours, would fully fund all DHS services except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Security. Both departments are already operating on large cash reserves provided under President Trump’s blockbuster legislation that Congressional Republicans approved last year.
But House Republicans denounced the Senate’s government shutdown exit strategy, saying it cannot be considered in any way defunding immigration enforcement. Rep. Michelle Fischbach (R-Minn.) said leaving the Senate “is not the answer.”
“This is a Swiss cheese funding bill defined by holes and flaws,” she said.
What happens next is not entirely clear. So far, neither Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune nor Democratic Senate Majority Leader Schumer has shown the agility to cancel the recess. Mr. Thune did not publicly address Mr. Johnson’s barrage of criticism from members on Friday.
Meanwhile, Democrats in both chambers argued that the easiest and quickest way to end the government shutdown is for the House to pass the Senate’s compromise bill.
“Everyone knows the Senate bill is an exit ramp,” said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.). “So please accept it.”
Zachary Schermele is a Congressional reporter for USA TODAY. You can email us at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and on Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social..
