Republicans Kill Senate Shutdown Bill While Thousands Of TSA Workers Go Without Pay
Trump’s aggressive deployment of armed ICE and CBP agents to Democratic-run cities sparked violent confrontations. In January, agents shot and killed 2 US citizens — one unarmed, another legally carrying a firearm.
The crisis triggered a 42-day partial government shutdown. Congressional Democrats blocked funding for ICE and CBP, demanding changes to immigration enforcement. Thousands of TSA workers were forced to work without pay since mid-February.
The Senate passed a bipartisan bill in a rare overnight vote to fund most of Homeland Security, including TSA and Coast Guard — but excluded ICE and parts of CBP over enforcement concerns.
House Republicans rejected it. Speaker Mike Johnson called the Senate bill a “joke” and vowed to introduce separate legislation to fully fund TSA, ICE, and CBP. Democrats warned it would be “dead on arrival.”
With Congress deadlocked, Trump signed an executive action to pay unpaid TSA staff. He called America’s air travel at its “breaking point” and declared a national security emergency. Paychecks expected by Monday.
But Trump insisted no bills pass before his controversial Save America Act — requiring passports or birth certificates to vote. Democrats blasted it as a cheap attempt to disenfranchise millions of American voters.
