The United States Senate unanimously approved funding for the Department of Homeland Security in the early hours of Friday morning, ending a 42-day stalemate that had left TSA agents working without pay and produced long lines at airports across the country. The deal funds the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard, and other agencies, but does not include funding for immigration enforcement operations.
The package now moves to the House, where lawmakers are expected to vote on it Friday before leaving for a two-week Easter recess. President Donald Trump had signed an emergency order Thursday to ensure TSA agents received pay, placing blame on Democrats for what he called “recklessly creating a true National Crisis.” If the House passes the Senate package and it is signed into law, Trump’s emergency action would likely become unnecessary.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune welcomed the vote but acknowledged more work remains. “We can get at least a lot of the government opened up again and then we’ll go from there,” he said. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said the deal could have been reached weeks earlier and vowed Democrats would continue pushing to ensure Trump’s immigration operation “does not get more funding without serious reform.”
The core dispute centres on Democratic demands for new restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including requirements for agents to wear identification, limits on face coverings, and an end to administrative warrants. Senator Martin Heinrich, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the funding package was “a step in the right direction” but maintained his position. “I will not support funding ICE without real reforms and a restoration to the rule of law,” he said. He added that Senate Democrats had made 14 separate attempts to fund the TSA, FEMA, CISA, and Coast Guard, each blocked by Senate Republicans.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins pushed back, saying Democrats “remained intransigent and unreasonable” in their demands. “Their refusal to fund ICE and Border Patrol leaves our borders and our country less secure,” Collins said.
ICE agents continued to be paid throughout the shutdown due to $75 billion in funding included in a GOP tax cuts bill signed into law last year. The financial toll on TSA workers, however, was severe. Since the partial shutdown began, nearly 500 of the agency’s roughly 50,000 transportation security officers have resigned. On Wednesday alone, more than 3,120 TSA employees scheduled to work called out, representing over 11% of the workforce on duty that day.
