Lawmakers are reportedly open to allocating funds under President Donald Trump‘s Big Beautiful Bill, meant for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) amid a partial government shutdown.
Republicans And Democrats Open To The Idea
GOP and Democratic Party lawmakers are mulling ways to allocate funds to the agency as TSA agents are set to miss their paychecks, The Hill reported on Monday. Leaders, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), as well as Democratic Whip Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), were open to allocating funds to TSA.
“I’m open to the idea, but I want to see a good-faith effort by the Republicans in the Senate and the administration to deal with the ICE problem,” Durbin said. Besides that, lawmakers like Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) also outlined the impact of the partial shutdown on the aviation industry.
“You’re going to shut down trillions of dollars, you shut down our economy by shutting down our airspace,” she said in the report, suggesting separate funding for the TSA from ICE and CBP.
It’s worth noting that the previous 43-day shutdown resulted in widespread disruption for the airline sector with major cancellations, delays and staff shortages as lawmakers clashed over funding of federal agencies.
Lawmakers on both ends of the spectrum are targeting moving over $190 billion in funds allocated to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to keep TSA employees paid during the shutdown, the report said.
Partial Shutdown Enters Day 17
The news comes as the shutdown has entered day 17, with lawmakers having not yet reached an agreement over funding of the DHS after ICE agents were involved in fatal shootings on multiple occasions.
Amid the shutdown, the Trump administration had suspended the TSA’s PreCheck and Global Entry schemes, both aimed at facilitating expedited security processing of travelers at the airport, but later rolled back the PreCheck suspension following backlash from industry leaders and customers.
Iran War
Lawmakers could also face heightened pressure to approve funding for the DHS amid the war with Iran following a U.S.-Israeli joint operation, which resulted in the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The conflict has had widespread implications on global trade as oil prices surge. The escalating tensions have also resulted in large-scale travel disruptions and flight cancellations across several airports.
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