Johnson turns up heat on Schumer as DHS shutdown drags on, airport delays mount
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is ratcheting up pressure on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Democrats in the upper chamber as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown creeps into a sixth week with no end in sight.
House GOP leaders are poised to hold votes Thursday on a pair of bills aimed at putting Democrats on the spot for the shutdown, Fox News Digital has learned.
Johnson is having the House vote for a third time on funding DHS through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. The bill is based on a bipartisan deal struck earlier this year, but Democrats walked away from it en masse in protest of President Donald Trump's strategy to crack down on illegal immigration.
The second measure is a nonbinding resolution led by Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-Pa., expressing support for all agencies under DHS's purview.
It comes as the DHS shutdown, now in its 38th day, is wreaking havoc for airline travelers across the country. Major airports in Houston, New Orleans, New York City, and other areas are seeing hours-long delays caused by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) staffing shortages, with scores of TSA agents calling out of work amid missed paychecks due to the shutdown.
TSA agents are poised to miss their paychecks this Friday, the second full pay period missed of the ongoing shutdown.
The TSA is one of several agencies that operate under DHS, along with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), among others.
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"Anyone waiting for hours just to miss their flights will not soon forget, and Republicans are going to continue reminding Americans that it’s the Democrats putting their safety at risk just to protect criminal illegal aliens," a House GOP leadership aide told Fox News Digital on Monday.
"The problem for Democrats in their latest shutdown is they are hurting American citizens in an effort to protect criminal illegals and reopen our border, as evidenced by their own words and bills they are pushing to defund Customs and Border Patrol."
Negotiations on funding DHS have ground to a halt with Republicans rejecting key demands from Democrats for ICE and CBP reforms — specifically requiring judicial warrants for immigration operations and banning agents from wearing face masks — as non-starters.
Trump also recently threw a wrench in the talks by demanding Republicans not accept any offer from Democrats until left-wing lawmakers agree to advance an unrelated election integrity measure called the SAVE America Act.
In the Senate, at least a handful of Democrats are needed to overcome a filibuster and advance any DHS funding legislation.
The House, which operates on a simple majority, passed congressional negotiators' initial DHS funding bill twice — and will likely do so a third time on Thursday.
The third iteration of the bill is being led by Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz.
"This standoff has gone on long enough," Ciscomani told Fox News Digital on Monday. "The men and women who keep our country safe here at home are a critical part of our national security—they need to get paid, now. These professionals should never be caught in the middle of political games, yet that’s exactly what has happened. It’s shameful."
The nonbinding resolution honoring DHS is also likely to pass, but it's unclear how much Democratic support it would get.
"Instead of joining the bipartisan majority in supporting full funding for DHS, including commonsense reforms like body cameras and de-escalation training, Democratic leadership is afraid of the radical ‘Defund ICE’ movement and unwilling to compromise in order to protect the American people," Mackenzie told Fox News Digital. "This situation is unacceptable, and it must end immediately."
Democrats have tried to push legislation to fund DHS except for agencies related to Trump's immigration crackdown, efforts that have been shunned by the GOP.
Both Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., have argued that ICE's controversial operations in Minneapolis and other blue cities are reason enough to block any proposal that funds further immigration operations.