As the 35th day of the partial shutdown came and went, the Senate failed yet again to fund DHS. The 47-37 vote on Friday, March 20, was the fifth attempt to pass a full-year funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security. Now the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) is set to miss yet another payday – but that’s not all. If some spending isn’t approved soon, it could bring American air travel to a screeching halt.
Long Lines Are Just the Beginning
To be clear, employees of the TSA are already working without pay. They received half checks on Friday, March 7, and missed their first full paychecks on Friday, March 13. If something doesn’t change between now and then, Friday, March 27, will breeze by with yet another paycheck not delivered. No matter how dedicated they may be to the job, all of these people have bills to pay and can only go so long without income before they have to try and find work – and pay – elsewhere.
More than 360 TSA officers have left the force since the shutdown began on February 14, and it’s only going to get worse from here. “This is going to look like child’s play, what’s happening right now,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Thursday on CNBC’s Squawk Box. The average national callout rate for TSA this week exceeded 10% – which is five times higher than usual. To highlight how rapidly this situation is degrading, he explained that just one week earlier, the callout rate was only double what it normally would be. And that’s the national average. In some busy locales, it’s much higher – more than 50% in Houston and 30% in New Orleans and Atlanta.
“You’re going to see small airports, I believe, shut down. You’re going to see extensive lines, and air travel is almost going to come to a grid halt,” Secretary Duffy explained in the interview.
What’s worse, Friday, March 27, isn’t just another missed payday for TSA – it’s the last day the Senate is scheduled to be in session before a two-week Easter recess. If the average callout rate for TSA employees can go from double to five times normal in just one week, how bad could it get in another two after that?
Some airports, like Philadelphia International, have already closed terminals due to staffing problems, but as Secretary Duffy pointed out, it’ll be worse for smaller locations. Deputy TSA Administrator Adam Stahl seconded that sentiment in a Thursday appearance on NewsNation.
“This is going to get worse before it gets better, particularly if we don’t have a resolution within the coming days and weeks,” he said. “Small airports may be particularly impacted because they have fewer lanes and they have fewer people, and so, if a certain three or four out of 10 employees call out, we may, to ensure we’re not degrading security, we may have to temporarily suspend operations at those airports.”
Musk Makes an Offer They Can Refuse – And Trump Leans on ICE
Billionaire Elon Musk weighed in on the matter, offering in a Saturday post on X to cover TSA salaries during the funding lapse. “This is incredibly generous. TSA agents across the country are relying on food pantries and community donations just to get by,” replied Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), the only Senate Democrat who has supported the GOP attempts to fund DHS so far. “I remain the lone Dem to vote with my Republican colleagues to fully fund DHS and get people paid. It should never come to this point.”
Generous though his offer may be, it’s unclear if federal law – which generally restricts outside compensation and requires government salaries to be paid by congressional appropriations – will allow it.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has another idea. On Saturday, he posted to Truth Social:
“If the Radical Left Democrats don’t immediately sign an agreement to let our Country, in particular, our Airports, be FREE and SAFE again, I will move our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports where they will do Security like no one has ever seen before, including the immediate arrest of all Illegal Immigrants who have come into our Country, with heavy emphasis on those from Somalia, who have totally destroyed, with the approval of a corrupt Governor, Attorney General, and Congresswoman, Ilhan Omar, the once Great State of Minnesota. I look forward to seeing ICE in action at our Airports.”
It’s hard to say what must be more frustrating for Senate Democrats: Elon Musk removing any legislative leverage they have by offering to pay TSA salaries or Trump’s threat to send in ICE – the very agency over which they’re protesting to begin with – to do the job instead.
Trump Offered Compromise for DHS Funding – But Democrats Want All or Nothing
The White House sent border czar Tom Homan to Capitol Hill on Thursday to meet with senators from both major parties in hopes of brokering a deal, but the effort was, apparently, in vain. The Trump administration reportedly offered some concessions in five of the ten areas that Senate Democrats demand ICE and CBP reform.
“We’ve offered body cams, more training, limited arrests for sensitive areas like churches and hospitals and so forth, schools, it’s a long list,” Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) told the press after the meeting. “I think the Democrats need to come back to us now and talk to us about what they’re willing to do.” But Republicans have stood firm on other items in the Democrats’ list, like requiring judicial warrants for them to force entry on private property and prohibiting the use of face masks to obscure their identities.
Even on those issues, however, Republicans say they’re willing to work something out. “That’s the kind of discussion we’re having on, how do you do it?” Hoeven explained. “A lot of times they’re not wearing masks, but they have to be able to do so when they need to do so to protect themselves in the same way any other law enforcement would.” As well, Trump’s latest nominee to lead DHS, Markwayne Mullin, said during his confirmation hearings that he would require judicial warrants for forced entry.
Still, however, Democrats – except for Sen. Fetterman, of course – refuse to meet in the middle. “My colleagues and I are not going to vote for any deal that doesn’t include real reforms on warrants, masks, training, and our other demands,” Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) told reporters.
No Rest for the Weary
Still, regardless of how hopeless it may seem, lawmakers must continue to try to reach a deal. The longer the shutdown goes, the more devastating it will be to the unpaid federal workers – but not those working for ICE or CBP, as they’re fully funded for years to come thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Employees of TSA and other DHS agencies, however, aren’t so lucky – nor are the millions of Americans looking to travel during this spring break season or the travel and tourism companies hoping to earn big bucks by serving them.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said he’s planning to cancel the two-week Easter recess scheduled for the Senate if they can’t pass DHS funding before next Friday. “If that’s what it takes,” Thune said, “I can’t see us taking a break here in the next week if DHS isn’t funded.”
“I just think we’ve got to fund the government. We can’t take a break like that, and continually have TSA not getting paid and other government employees not getting paid,” he concluded.
With no light yet appearing at the end of this legislative tunnel, it seems this stubborn refusal to compromise will keep Congressional noses to the grindstone. No rest for the weary, this Easter season.
