WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security has entered its seventh week without fresh funding after three separate spending measures collapsed in the Senate, prolonging a partial government shutdown that has furloughed roughly 27,000 employees and forced tens of thousands more to work without pay.
Senate Democrats on Tuesday again blocked a $65.7 billion appropriation for DHS, objecting to language they say would roll back asylum protections and expand the administration’s authority to detain migrants. Republican leaders countered that the bill merely mirrors policy riders approved by the House last month. “We cannot keep the lights on at TSA or pay our Border Patrol agents unless the other side ends this filibuster,” Senate Minority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said on the floor.
The impasse dates to 43 days ago, when the previous continuing resolution expired. Since then, Transportation Security Administration screeners have reported higher sick-out rates, forcing temporary lane closures at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson and New York’s LaGuardia airports, according to two aviation officials briefed on internal logs. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has suspended most civil fines operations and postponed nearly 19,000 immigration court hearings, the Executive Office for Immigration Review confirmed.
White House budget director Shalanda Young warned in a memo that DHS will exhaust residual carry-over balances “no later than April 8,” raising the prospect of widespread shutdowns at the Federal Emergency Management Agency weeks before the spring flood season. “If Congress cannot agree, disaster response will be at risk,” the memo said.
Behind closed doors, negotiators have floated a narrow, two-month patch that would fund DHS at current levels while leaders debate a broader border and immigration package. But a senior Democratic aide told SourceRated that progressive senators remain opposed to “papering over” policies they view as punitive. Some Republicans are equally dug in; Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said he would block any stopgap that omits money for additional border wall segments.
Analysts say the political costs are rising. “Airport delays hit voters where they live,” noted Molly Reynolds, a budget scholar at the Brookings Institution. “The longer this lasts, the more pressure there will be on both parties to cut a deal, even a temporary one.”
Strategists on Capitol Hill expect leaders to test support for a clean continuing resolution as early as Friday. If that gambit fails, staffers are bracing for the shutdown to stretch into the mid-April district work period, when members are likely to face backlash at town halls. For TSA officers and Border Patrol agents now collecting zero-dollar paychecks, however, relief cannot come soon enough.