WASHINGTON — The Senate failed to fund the Department of Homeland Security on Friday, as airline passengers fought through lengthy lines and a growing number of Transportation Security Administration employees began calling out sick.
Only 84 senators showed up for the fifth attempted vote to reopen DHS, which failed to clear a 60-vote threshold or even a simple majority — and fell largely along party lines.
Forty-six Republicans and Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania voted to fund DHS, while 37 Democrats led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) opposed its reopening in protest of President Trump’s immigration agenda.
“My impression, at least up until now, is this is all about politics for Chuck Schumer and the Democrats,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said. “The far-left base is demanding, again, that they fight the president.”
Republican and Democratic leaders and negotiators have also acknowledged they’re still far from a deal on immigration enforcement reforms for the beleaguered agency 35 days into the shutdown.
“The White House outlined an entire list of bipartisan solutions,” added Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.). “They include expanding the use of body cameras for officers and making IDs for officers clearly visible. Democrats have rejected all our good faith offers. They’ve rejected bipartisan solutions.”
Talks between Trump’s border czar Tom Homan and Democrats took place Thursday night — but led to no breakthroughs.
“Every previous vote offered by the Republicans has tied TSA funding to also continue funding for ICE without any reform of ICE,” Schumer shot back in a floor speech Friday.
“To my Republican colleagues, we both see the chaos at TSA; we both know and would admit there’s a lot more work to do on ICE,” he added. “There is no good reason to keep holding TSA hostage.”
Meanwhile, TSA agents have lost out on paychecks and begun calling out sick or quitting.
Almost 10% of TSA agents were off the job nationwide on Thursday, per the latest agency data. As many as 28.7% were absent from JFK Airport and 15.9% weren’t at LaGuardia — leading to long wait times at checkpoints.
