Gridlocked on DHS deal, senators get a reprieve from Trump

WASHINGTON—Caught in the throes of another government funding showdown, U.S. senators have scrambled this week for a chance to salvage a two-week recess scheduled to begin on Friday. They ultimately got a reprieve late on Thursday afternoon—after another procedural vote failed on a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security—when President Donald Trump announced he would sign an order directing immediate pay for Transportation and Security Administration agents.

“I am going to sign an Order instructing the Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, to immediately pay our TSA Agents in order to address this Emergency Situation, and to quickly stop the Democrat Chaos at the Airports,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I will not allow the Radical Left Democrats to hold our Country hostage any longer.”

The lack of congressionally authorized funding for the Department of Homeland Security—of which the TSA is a part—has led to unpaid TSA agents refusing to show up for work over the past week, resulting in hourslong security screening lines at some airports. That has increased pressure on Democrats and Republicans to work out a funding compromise, but they have so far failed to reach a resolution regarding Democratic demands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement reforms.

Although the president did not specify under what authority he would issue the order for TSA pay, one option at his disposal was to invoke the National Emergencies Act, which would allow the federal government to tap into unspent money already approved by last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

The president’s announcement bought more time for lawmakers, who were under pressure to reach a deal ahead of the upcoming two-week recess for Easter and Passover. But as of Thursday afternoon, Republican and Democrat efforts at negotiation appeared stalled.

“At some point they have to take yes for an answer,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters. “There are some language requests that they made that we did everything we could to accommodate.”

Meanwhile, whatever the Senate passes would still need a House vote for final approval. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters earlier on Thursday he was still waiting to decide whether to send members home this weekend.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., put on hold his plan to offer a resolution to fund only the TSA. For weeks, Republicans have blocked similar attempts from Democrats to fund portions of DHS, but Kennedy said it might be necessary to alleviate long security lines at airports across the country. On Thursday afternoon, he said White House intervention may remove the need for such a resolution.

Earlier Thursday, Thune also sent what he called the final GOP offer to reopen DHS. Neither party revealed what exactly was in the Thursday version. But Democrats said it still was not enough.

“Incomplete, from what I’ve seen,” Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., told reporters. Asked what was still missing, Padilla replied, “True reforms.”

Other senators have contemplated changing chamber procedure to circumvent Democrat opposition. Last year, Senate Republicans adopted the so-called “nuclear option” to vote for a batch of executive nominees to break a Democratic blockade. Some see that instance as a blueprint for the DHS shutdown.

“We just need to make sure that people get paid,” Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., told reporters. “We’ve changed the institution, just like they did to unblock nominations, they wouldn’t fix it. We had to roll over them.”