The US House of Representatives has been called back to the Capitol to vote on a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as airport travel delays sweep the country.
The vote, which would fund DHS including its immigration agencies through to 22 May, comes hours after Republicans rejected a deal passed by the Senate to fund the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
TSA agents, who manage security in US airports, have not been paid in more than a month due to the congressional impasse. Many airports have seen long delays.
The House bill is unlikely to be signed into law, as Democrats have pushed to halt funding to immigration agencies covered under DHS without reforms.
The House is planning to vote on the measure late on Friday. If approved, it would then head to the Senate for approval, though Democrats there have already signalled they will not support it.
With Congress about to take a two-week break, funding for the DHS – which includes TSA agents, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency – appears unlikely to pass any time soon.
As the impasse continued, President Donald Trump signed an order directing his administration to pay hundreds of airport security agents, many of whom have been working without pay, calling in sick or quitting.
The move, though, may be met with legal and political challenges, as the US Constitution tasks Congress with authorising spending for the federal government.
Democrats have refused to agree to a funding deal without reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), but the Senate reached unanimous agreement to pass a bill early on Friday after stripping ICE and parts of border protection from the measure.
House Republicans have indicated they will not support legislation without funding for immigration enforcement and voter ID requirements.
“Republicans are not going to be any part of any effort to reopen our borders or to stop immigration enforcement,” Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said.
But Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Friday that the House measure funding the department temporarily would be “dead on arrival”.
“We’ve been clear from day one: Democrats will fund critical Homeland Security functions – but we will not give a blank check to Trump’s lawless and deadly immigration militia without reforms,” Schumer said.
Hakeem Jeffries, the top Democrat in the House, told reporters that Democrats were “working to maximise our attendance” for the expected vote on Friday evening, the BBC’s US media partner CBS News reported.
Both Republicans and Democrats had attendance issues during a vote on Friday morning: Republicans had 11 absences, while Democrats had 9.
It was hoped that the fresh package the Senate passed could bring an end to widespread disruption at airports across the US, where travellers have faced hours-long queues due to a shortage of TSA officers at security checkpoints.
Around 50,000 agents with the TSA have been working without pay since mid-February due to the shutdown. This has reduced the number turning up to work each day and led to hundreds quitting.
A BBC reporter at Houston airport reported on Thursday night that, after waiting about two hours in a winding queue across one floor, frazzled travellers had gone up an escalator thinking they had reached the end – only to find another long line stretching towards security.
Currently, only a third to 50% of its TSA checkpoints are operating, according to Jim Szczesniak, director of aviation for the Houston Airport System.
A few hours before the Senate vote, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he would sign an executive order “to immediately pay out TSA Agents”.
“Trump should never have had to step in to rescue TSA workers and US air travel,” said the Republican Senate Majority Leader, John Thune, addressing the chamber after the vote.
“We’re here because, thanks to Democrats’ determined refusal to reach an agreement, there will be no Homeland Security funding bill this year,” he said. “Instead… Republicans funded the Department of Homeland Security piecemeal. That is not the way to fund the department.”
Schumer said the package included funding for the TSA, US Coast Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency.
He told the chamber that “in the wake of the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Senate democrats were clear: no blank cheque for a lawless ICE and border patrol”.
There has been mounting controversy over the actions of ICE agents, particularly in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where US citizens Good and Pretti were shot by federal agents during operations there earlier this year.
Democrats want any deal on DHS funding to include measures like an end to ICE agents wearing masks, a ban on racial profiling and a requirement for judicial warrants to be issued before agents can enter private property.
