Monday morning news: March 16, 2026

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Duffy on travel delays » TSA airport security agents are reporting for work today without pay for now. They just missed their first full paycheck since the Homeland Security funding lapse began more than a month ago. 

But they are now enduring their second shutdown in a matter of months, and many have had enough.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy:

DUFFY: 300, uh, TSA agents have quit. Uh, the number of callouts are double what they were before.

But TSA agents are not alone. More than 100 thousand DHS workers missed Friday's paycheck. Federal employees are guaranteed back pay once the shutdown ends, but there’s no telling when that will be.

Security lines have stretched for hours at major airports. And a number of airports are now soliciting public donations to help agents get by while they wait.

Democrats have refused to fund Homeland Security until Republicans agree to a list of demanded changes to immigration enforcement. But Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman has broken with his party.

FETTERMAN: Why would you wanna punish all of these workers that under DHS, only thing that it could do is just make us less safe, and that also makes people have to go without getting paid.

But California Democrat Congressman James Walkinshaw says Republicans are the ones to blame.

WALKINSHAW: The Democrats have been saying, let's fund the other agencies in DHS and continue to negotiate around ICE and CBP. There wasn't a vote in the Senate and in the House until this week.

Republicans say Congress must fund the entire Department of Homeland Security immediately for the sake of national security.

Iran update »  President Trump says Iran is ready for talks to end the war, though he says he does not believe the terms would be good enough yet to reach a deal.

But Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi disputed that claim, telling CBS’ Face the Nation:

ARAGHCHI: We never asked for a ceasefire and we have never asked even for negotiation. We are ready to defend ourselves as long as it takes.

And there are still questions about exactly who is in charge. 

Iranian state media last week read a statement purportedly issued by Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei. But notably, he did not appear on camera. Israel believes he was seriously wounded in the initial U.S. and Israeli strikes. And some question whether he’s truly in charge, or even if he's still alive.

As U.S. and Israeli forces continue to devastate Iran’s military, the regime’s greatest leverage remains its ability to largely halt commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz with threats of violence.

Energy Sec. Chris Wright says the Strait is:

WRIGHT:  Very important for global commerce and for energy commerce, and they impact energy prices as we're all seeing. They have used this threat for 47 years and they've continued to build up their arsenal to make this threat graver and graver.

And he said President Trump is determined to end that threat once and for all.

Gas prices » But in the meantime, energy prices are surging across the globe, including at the pump in the U.S.

AAA says the national average for a gallon of regular unleaded is now $3.70 per gallon. For perspective, a month ago, that price was $2.93.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt had this message for the American public:

LEAVITT:  We understand your concerns, we hear you, and we are taking them into account and we have a plan to address them. And this is a temporary short-term disruption in global oil prices that the president is ultimately going to rectify by wiping out the rogue Iranian terrorist regime.

The Trump administration insists the long-term gain of what it says will be a safer world is more than worth the short-term pain at the pump.

But Democrats continue to blast the effort as a war of choice with no clear exit strategy.

Weather » A massive storm system that buried much of the Upper Midwest in snow is now targeting the East Coast. 

Forecasters upgraded the severe weather risk for parts of the Mid-Atlantic to a rare level four out of five—warning of possible tornadoes, damaging winds, and large hail from the Carolinas to Washington D.C. 

Marc Chenard with the National Weather Service:

CHENARD: A lot of these areas are seeing one to two feet of snow. Portions of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Northern Michigan, locally higher totals. Um, quite a bit of wind with this storm too. So we have the blowing snow, uh, issue, uh, as well. And then the cold temperatures behind it, yeah, I mean, we'll have temperatures across portions of the northern plains that get below zero.

Meantime, a disaster in Hawaii as a rare Kona storm has triggered historic flooding and landslides, prompting the governor to declare a statewide emergency.

U.S.-China trade talks » President Trump is on track to become the first U.S. president to visit China since he visited eight years ago in his first term. And American officials are now working to make it happen.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met Sunday with China's Vice Premier for trade talks …. And they were set to meet once again today. 

The White House hopes the talks will set the stage for a late-March summit between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. China has not officially confirmed the visit.

I'm Kent Covington.

And straight ahead: Legal Docket. Plus, more on the ongoing effects of the shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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