House GOP Blows Up Senate DHS Deal as Airport Chaos Drags On
The Morning Sixpack - 03/27/2026: House tanks DHS deal, TSA lines grow, deportations loom and Washington digs in deeper
House Republicans rejected a Senate-passed DHS funding deal, extending a shutdown that’s already snarling airports nationwide—because brinkmanship pairs nicely with long TSA lines.
House Republicans rejected a Senate deal to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, all but guaranteeing the shutdown that began Feb. 14—leading to long security lines at airports nationwide—will grind on. Lawmakers are now staring at yet another stalemate with no clear exit ramp.
Translation: Washington can’t fund airport screeners, but it can fund the finger-pointing.
The Senate passed a measure early Friday to fund DHS—minus Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection—after weeks of gridlock. The House, however, is floating its own eight-week stopgap to fund the entire department, according to people familiar with internal discussions. That plan is already dead on arrival in the Senate, where Democrats say it’s a nonstarter.
“The bottom line is, this deal is bad for Americans,” House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris (R-Maryland) said. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) fired back: “This could’ve been accomplished weeks ago if Republicans hadn’t stood in the way.”
Caught in the middle are TSA officers working without pay and travelers stuck in marathon lines. The Senate deal includes no new restrictions on ICE or CBP—reforms Democrats had demanded after federal agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis in January. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) shrugged at Democratic complaints, saying, “They got no reforms on DHS, which they could have had if they had been willing to work with us a little bit on that.”
Meanwhile, Republicans are eyeing the reconciliation process to pump even more money into deportation efforts. “What’s coming next is going to supercharge deportations,” Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Missouri) said. President Donald Trump has urged Republicans not to “make any deal” until Democrats back his Save America Act and warned, “They need to end the shutdown immediately, or we’ll have to take some very drastic measures.”
Source: The Washington Post (free)
Editor: Nothing says “functional government” like debating deportation strategy while Grandma misses her flight to Phoenix. Maybe next time they can argue it out in the TSA line like everyone else.