Senate votes to fund TSA, but House opposition leaves LVIA workers’ paychecks in limbo

LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa. — A pre-dawn vote in the U.S. Senate to fund large portions of the Department of Homeland Security, including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), offered a potential path toward ending a 42-day partial government shutdown that has left TSA workers at Lehigh Valley International Airport working without pay for six weeks.

However, by Friday afternoon, the measure faced resistance from House Republicans, who accused Senate leaders of cutting a deal that would abandon immigration enforcement.

The measure, passed unanimously by the Senate, would restore funding for TSA and other key DHS agencies through the end of the fiscal year. The bill excludes funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and most of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Democrats and Senate Republicans agreed to leave ICE funding out of the bill entirely, as the two sides could not reach an agreement on reforms to the agency’s enforcement practices, and to address ICE funding in a separate fight later.

House Republicans rejected that approach, insisting any bill must fund ICE as well.

Senate Republican leaders said they agreed to the arrangement in part because ICE has remained funded through last year’s GOP reconciliation bill — meaning the agency never actually shut down — with plans to restore its formal appropriations later through a separate measure that would not require Democratic votes.

On a call with House Republicans Friday afternoon, Speaker Mike Johnson announced the GOP would attempt to pass its own 60-day stopgap bill that would fund all of DHS. Johnson called the Senate deal “a joke,” saying Democrats had “foisted upon this appropriations process their radical, crazy agenda.”

If passed, the House bill would go back to the Senate for approval — but the Senate has already left Washington for a two-week Easter and Passover recess, likely prolonging the shutdown by days or weeks. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the House plan “dead on arrival.”

The House Freedom Caucus announced it would not support the Senate measure, demanding that any bill include money for Border Patrol as well as a federal voter identification requirement — a key component of the stalled Save America Act that conservatives have sought to tie to DHS funding.

President Trump on Friday signed a presidential memorandum directing newly confirmed DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to restart pay for TSA workers. DHS said officers could receive paychecks as early as Monday, March 30. The White House indicated the executive action may not be necessary if Congress acts, but said it was moving forward given the ongoing impasse.

The House Rules Committee advanced the GOP’s 60-day stopgap Friday afternoon, with a full House vote expected later Friday evening or into Saturday.

How the shutdown began

The partial government shutdown began in February after federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis as part of a federal immigration crackdown. Democrats demanded changes to ICE and DHS more broadly and refused to fund the department without them, triggering the standoff.

Those demanded reforms include requiring agents to wear body cameras, to obtain judicial warrants before conducting raids, and to stop wearing masks during enforcement operations — terms the Trump administration and Republican negotiators have not agreed to.

The shutdown is now in its 42nd day. TSA workers have faced missed paychecks, and multiple airports have reported callout rates above 40%. On Thursday, the TSA callout rate hit 11.83% — the highest single day of the entire shutdown — with more than 3,450 officers out. The worst rates were at Houston Intercontinental, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta, and Baltimore/Washington International airports.

Nearly 510 of the agency’s approximately 50,000 transportation security officers have quit since the shutdown began.

Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman was the only Democrat supporting the deal to reopen the entirety of DHS.

The Senate deal also includes funding for FEMA, the Coast Guard, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The legislation places no new limits on immigration enforcement operations, which have continued largely uninterrupted throughout the shutdown.

ICE has remained funded through roughly $75 billion allocated in last year’s GOP reconciliation bill, meaning the agency has continued deportation operations even as the broader DHS funding battle has dragged on.

Local impact

At Lehigh Valley International Airport, the shutdown’s effects have been visible but contained compared to major hubs. Airport officials said security checkpoints remained fully staffed, with wait times averaging about three minutes.

TSA workers participated in a “Fill the Bus” donation drive, collecting more than 20 carts of food and household supplies for employees working without a paycheck — their third funding lapse in six months. Officials have warned, however, that prolonged funding gaps could eventually affect staffing and service if the impasse continues.

U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, representing the Lehigh Valley and Poconos in Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District, introduced a non-binding resolution urging Congress to pass the agency’s full-year budget as the shutdown entered its 35th day.

In a statement last week, Mackenzie called out what he described as Democratic obstruction.

“Partisanship from the far left has put politics ahead of our national security and stripped frontline workers of their paychecks,” he said. “We need to pass full DHS funding now, alongside commonsense ICE reforms, like those already included in the appropriations package, to keep our country safe and secure.”

His resolution emphasized that funding only individual DHS components piecemeal would degrade interagency coordination and increase risks to the public.

On Friday evening, Mackenzie, who sits on the House Homeland Security Committee, issued a statement saying the chamber had failed to deliver either a complete funding solution or meaningful reform.

“42 days into the DHS shutdown, and after the U.S. House successfully passed a bipartisan funding package three times, the Senate passed legislation in the dead of night, which fails to provide either full funding or bipartisan reforms,” Mackenzie said. “The American people deserve real solutions, not political games. It’s time for Congress to come together to pass full funding for DHS alongside commonsense, bipartisan reforms.”

Lehigh County Executive Josh Siegel called on Democratic leadership to hold firm and said any agreement must include reforms to ICE operations.

“While the Senate passed a funding bill for DHS, House Republicans rejected the legislation, continuing the stalemate,” Siegel said. “In the meantime, passengers traveling and dedicated airport workers suffer in the chaos. This is a crisis of choice because national Republican leadership and President Trump chose crisis over compromise.”

Siegel said any final agreement should include specific reforms to ICE operations — prohibiting agents from using masks, requiring judicial warrants, and mandating body cameras. “The time of terrorizing our communities must end,” he said.