Republicans in the US House of Representatives on Friday shot down a bipartisan Senate effort to end the weekslong partial government shutdown that has forced thousands of airport security officers to work without pay.
Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson called the Senate bill, which passed unanimously early Friday morning, a “joke.”
Johnson said Republicans would introduce their own legislation to fully fund the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
However, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that such a bill would be “dead on arrival.”
The Senate’s bill, which passed in a rare overnight vote, would have funded most of the Department of Homeland Security, including TSA and the US Coast Guard, but would exclude ICE as well as parts of CBP.
Democrats have refused to fund those agencies without changes to immigration enforcement practices.As Congress and the White House fought over policies, citizens stepped up to donate food for unpaid TSA agents Image: Tim Evans/REUTERS
Trump signs executive action to pay TSA employees
With Congress still deadlocked, President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive action to pay TSA staff who have been working without pay since mid-February
“America’s air travel system has reached its breaking point,” Trump said in the memo authorizing the payments.
“I have determined that these circumstances constitute an emergency situation compromising the Nation’s security,” he added.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Friday that TSA workers “should begin seeing paychecks as early as Monday.”
Political infighting led to massive airport waits and unpaid TSA workers
Both ICE and CBP are at the heart of the now 42-day funding fight, with Congressional Democrats initially blocking funds in response to President Donald Trump’s massive and chaotic deployment of armed and masked federal agents almost exclusively to Democratic-run cities.
The aggressive approach of ICE and CBP deployments, combined with the perceived immunity enjoyed by those agents, has led to numerous violent confrontations with citizens.
In January, ICE agents shot and killed two US citizens — one unarmed and another legally carrying a firearm — within days of each other.
Both incidents occurred during altercations sparked by ICE efforts to arrest “illegal immigrants” and disperse protesters and observers.
Before Friday, Democrats had offered to fund various agencies individually to avoid a weekslong funding fight, but Trump ordered Congressional Republicans to refuse the move.
Despite complaining about Democrats’ tactics, Trump insists funding be total and told Republicans that no bills should be considered before passage of his so-called Save America Act — a controversial new bill that Republicans and the president claim will introduce “voting security measures” by requiring voters to show a passport or birth certificate to vote.
Democrats have blasted the initiative as a cheap attempt to disenfranchise voters.
Minneapolis: Clashes over fatal shooting at ICE protestTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
Edited by: Alex Berry, Sean Sinico, Wesley Dockery
