Unexpected Deal! Senate Approves TSA and DHS Funding, Excluding ICE Amidst Tensions

The deal, reached late Friday, excluded funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol. This came after negotiators failed to agree on reforms demanded by Democrats, following federal immigration officers fatally shooting two protesters in Minneapolis in January. The deal came together quickly after months of stalled negotiations and just before lawmakers were set to depart for a two-week recess. Hours-long lines at airport TSA checkpoints put enormous pressure on them to act. Senate leaders sent a hotline request to senators early Friday morning to see if there would be objections to funding TSA, the Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) by unanimous consent. The proposal also included funding for customs officers at border checkpoints.

The Senate vote came after Republicans acknowledged on Thursday afternoon that they would not be able to convince six more Democrats to join centrist Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) in voting for a deal to reopen the entirety of DHS. Negotiations had broken down over a proposal endorsed by Trump to split off funding for ICE’s emergency removal operations from the annual Homeland Security appropriations bill, but fund the remainder of ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Trump then announced in a message Thursday evening that he would take emergency action to pay TSA workers. He accused “Radical Left Democrats” of holding “our Country hostage.” The president said the order “wasn’t an easy thing to do” but declared he wanted to “quickly stop the Democrat Chaos at the Airports.”

Travelers across the country were facing hours-long wait times at TSA checkpoints, including at major airports like George Bush Intercontinental Airport and William P. Hobby Airport in Houston and Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta. That left a number of GOP lawmakers restless about the weeks-long failure to reopen TSA.

Thune said they abandoned that effort and “pivoted” to a new strategy when it became clear that Democrats would not accept the reforms Republicans were willing to make to ICE in exchange for passing the entire Homeland Security appropriations bill. “This was all about reforms and they were all on the table,” he said. “Basically, that door kind of closed and they started to take the funding [for ICE] off the table. … I just think their base was demanding that they not fund ICE.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer declared victory on the Senate floor. “Democrats held firm in our opposition that Donald Trump’s rogue and deadly militia should not get more funding without serious reforms, and we will continue to fight for those reforms,” he said. “I’m very proud of our Democratic caucus. Throughout it all, Senate Democrats stood united—no wavering, no backing down,” he added.

The sudden action by the Senate raises questions whether Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will be able to pass the package before the weekend, when both chambers are scheduled to begin a two-week Easter recess. Trump would also need to sign the legislation for it to become law. Thune expressed cautious optimism the president would do that. “I never speak for him but he understood where we were, where the Democrats were,” he said of Trump’s support. “I hope so.”

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), a strong Trump ally, urged his Senate colleagues to cancel the recess to continue working on a bill to fund the entire Homeland Security Department and continue debating the SAVE America Act, a voting reform bill. “Cancel the recess. Fund DHS. Pass the SAVE America Act. Failure to do this will produce defeat In November,” Lee posted on X.

Republican senators familiar with the president’s thinking said Trump was concerned by the possibility of a nationwide walkout by TSA workers if the funding impasse dragged on. Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) worked with the White House budget office to identify an unused pot of money that could be tapped to pay TSA workers. It provided enough money to cover TSA for several months. Friday morning’s vote capped a rollercoaster week of negotiations. Republicans thought earlier in the week that they had a good chance of reaching a bipartisan deal to fund part of ICE’s budget and reopen the Homeland Security Department after presenting a proposal to do that to Trump during a meeting at the White House on Monday. The plan would have cut ICE’s funding in the bill by approximately $5.4 billion — or more than half of its $10 million annually appropriated budget.