WASHINGTON, D.C. – It’s now been 40 days of the Department of Homeland Security shut down. TSA agents have worked without getting paid, travelers have dealt with hours long lines, FEMA’s Disaster Relief funds are running low and our cybersecurity agency (CISA) has furloughed hundreds of workers. On Capitol Hill, frustrations are growing among Republicans and Democrats to find a solution.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R- SD), said they’ve sent their last and final offer to Senate Democrats. Earlier this week, there were talks of a potential deal that would fund parts of DHS agencies like FEMA and TSA, including the nonenforcement part of ICE but Democrats had reservations about that proposal because some were worried that money would still go towards immigration enforcement.
Members are pulling out all the stops to try to find some sort of solution.
“Gonna do another unanimous consent (UC) to pay TSA and open that up so that Republicans don’t reject it,” said Sen. Gary Peters (D- MI). “It’s kind of mind-blowing to me that every Republican is saying ‘why aren’t we opening TSA?’ Well, it’s very easy. You can put it on the floor, you control the floor. Or you just don’t object to a unanimous consent to do it.”
Some Senate Republicans seemed a little more cautiously optimistic there could be an agreement reached before the weekend.
“We’ve worked with our caucus, we’ve worked with the White House to find commonsense solutions and changes to the things the Democrats have asked for,” said Sen. John Hoeven (R- ND). “And at some point, they need to quit backing up on us and fund DHS and pay TSA.”
The House again passed a measure that would fund DHS, but it was more of a messaging vote to the Senate, trying to encourage the Senate to reach a deal. Both the House and Senate are scheduled to leave for a long recess but there’s talks of Senators staying in DC if a deal can’t be finalized.
