Lawmakers continued pressing competing funding approaches for the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday, with the shutdown entering its 33rd day and both parties signaling little progress toward a final package.
The standoff persisted even as Trump’s nominee to head DHS, Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, appeared before a congressional panel and urged colleagues to resolve the impasse. Mullin’s testimony emphasized that DHS employees are working without pay, an argument Republicans have used to press for full funding rather than partial measures.
Democrats, meanwhile, renewed their efforts to pressure the White House and GOP leadership through the House’s procedural tools. House Democrats said they are gathering support for a discharge petition aimed at forcing the House to take up a bill from Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., intended to fund TSA and other DHS agencies, but not to fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or the office of the secretary.
As the petition campaign unfolded on the Capitol steps, Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said “Discharge petitions are difficult, some say impossible,” adding, “But for us, difficult takes a day, impossible takes a week.” Republicans argued the structure of DeLauro’s approach would not keep Homeland Security fully operational during a period they characterized as heightened security and said Democrats could not fund the department piecemeal.
Even if Democrats could secure the needed signatures to force a vote, the measure would still face a steep challenge in the Senate, where support from 60 senators is needed to advance any spending measure. Republicans also argued the department should be funded as a whole, and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said Homeland Security was created after 9/11 and that Democrats were treating the current fight like it happened before the attacks.
While lawmakers argued over process and sequencing, the administration and Democrats continued trading claims about what immigration enforcement changes have already been agreed to. The White House highlighted in a letter to Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Katie Britt of Alabama a set of changes it said it had already endorsed, including expanded use of body-worn cameras with an exception for undercover operations, limits on civil enforcement activities at sensitive locations such as hospitals and schools with a narrow exception for immediate needs tied to national security, and increased oversight through mandatory reviews and inspector general compliance reporting.
The White House also said officers conducting immigration enforcement would have their identification clearly displayed and would have to verbalize their agency and identification upon request during official duties, while exempting undercover officers from those requirements. Democrats disputed that the offer went far enough. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that the White House still was refusing to engage on “some of the most pressing demands Democrats have called for since day one.”
The dispute has also spilled into transportation security, where TSA officials warned disruptions could worsen as the funding lapse continues. The administration and TSA leadership pointed to staffing strain linked to pay, warning that delays at some airports could get worse if more screeners call out or quit. Adam Stahl, TSA’s acting deputy administrator, cited the Philadelphia airport as experiencing longer screening times for some passengers as more workers call out, and he said the situation would “get worse before it gets better” unless Congress takes action.
In a separate post, the Department of Homeland Security said more than 366 TSA agents have left the force because of the shutdown, a figure administration officials said contributes to critical staffing gaps while new recruits require four to six months of training before they can be fully operational.
Lawmakers also continued to explore short-term voting strategies in the Senate. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., offered a bill to fund TSA through September, but Republicans objected, and Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., proposed funding all of DHS for two weeks, which Warnock did not accept. Republicans and Democrats said the exchange reflected the broader pattern of prior attempts to fund parts of DHS, with Republicans pushing for short-term full-department funding while Democrats sought to tie funding to conditions aimed at enforcement accountability.