The US Senate has voted to end a partial 40-day government shutdown, approving funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – but with immigration enforcement excluded.
The almost six-week funding lapse has had a knock-on effect on air travel in the US. Airport security workers’ salaries are paid by the DHS, and hundreds have quit since the shutdown began.
Democrats had refused to agree a funding deal without reforms to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, but the Senate reached unanimous agreement in the early hours of Friday morning after stripping ICE and parts of border protection out of the measure.
The deal now faces a vote in the House of Representatives.
It is hoped that the fresh package can bring an end to widespread disruption at airports across the US, where travellers have faced hours-long queues due to a shortage of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers at security checkpoints.
Around 50,000 agents with the TSA – which sits under the DHS – 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 went 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, US President Donald 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.”
Democratic Minority Leader Chuck 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.
The funding package still requires approval in the House of Representatives to come into force.
By BBC News
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