March 27, 2026
No. Deal.
That was House Speaker Mike Johnson just a few minutes ago saying that the House of Representatives will *not* accept the deal the Senate passed in the middle of the night to fund most of Homeland Security – except ICE and parts of Customs and Border Protection. Before I get into the politics of this – the reality for you – especially if you’re traveling is that the chaos at the airports will continue – because the new plan from house Republicans probably won’t pass in the Senate. The fact is – the Senate plan that passed in the middle of the night probably would have passed with both Democrat and Republican support in the House and then things could have started to get back to normal. But since Speaker Johnson has chosen this path – this partial government shutdown of Homeland Security is going to go on. Johnson though is still blaming democrats.
Except it wasn’t just Democrats that passed that deal in the Senate in the middle of the night…as I just showed you in this video– it was Senator John Thune the Senate majority leader the Republican guy in charge of the Senate who got that bill across the finish line. And that’s because unlike in the House where Republicans and muscle bills across the finish line with only Republican votes – things are different in the Senate. They have to compromise with Democrats. Especially on funding bills which have to have 60 votes to pass. That means Republicans need at least 7 Democrats to also say yes. And Democrats have said from the beginning – they’re not going to agree to anything until Republicans make some kind of policy changes to the way ICE and CBP are conducting themselves on the streets of America. Since Republicans in the Senate couldn’t agree to that – instead – the Senate decided to table that policy discussion since there was no deal in sight – and passed a bill to fund everything else so TSA, the Coast Guard and FEMA workers can get paid.
The House Speaker said that’s not good enough.
So the new plan is Speaker Johnson is going to try and pass a clean continuing resolution to get all of Homeland Security funded including ICE and CBP. That CR would last only through May 22nd. The upside if this passes is all those federal workers will be paid. The downside is we’re going to be right back here having this exact same fight in less than three weeks. The problem with Johnson’s plan is if it can pass the House, the Senate would still need to pass it and they’re already gone on their two week recess. So in the meantime Johnson says the president will step in.
he reality is – it is completely unclear what legal authroity the president would have to pay TSA agents or any federal worker and where this money would come from. The constitution of the United States is very clear. Congress controls the purse. Not the president. So that’s definitely not a guarantee.
I’ll keep you posted on whether Speaker Johnson can get this CR across the finish line in the house. He’s trying to move it today. But here’s a reality check – even if unicorns fly and this CR does pass the House and does pass the Senate – that doesn’t necessarily mean that everything at the airport is going to snap back into place. TSA agents have not been paid for half of the fiscal year. And because of it almost 500 of them have quit and thousands more are over it.
Watch the Speaker’s press conference here.
