You want to know why we are having all this trouble with the TSA?
One word: Democrats.
The standoff over the funding of the Department of Homeland Security, including TSA, continues. People are waiting for hours at airports because of it. 
According to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/03/25/nx-s1-5760981/tsa-wait-times-lines">NPR</a>:
<blockquote>The Transportation Security Administration is experiencing the longest wait times ever in its 24-year history because of the ongoing partial shutdown, the agency&#8217;s deputy administrator, Ha Nguyen McNeill, told the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday.
Wait times at some major airports have exceeded four hours, and employees at those airports are calling out of work at rates of 40% to 50%, McNeill told members of the committee. If this partial government shutdown continues into Friday, TSA will have missed almost $1 billion in paychecks since it began, McNeill said. …</blockquote>
McNeill thanked Trump for sending ICE agents to some major airports, &#8220;enabling TSA officers to focus on carrying out critical security screening duties during this challenging time for our agency.”
TSA may have to close smaller airports due to understaffing, she said, and she worried the agency will continue to lose officers to more steady jobs and fail to attract new talent.
This is crazy town. It&#8217;s insanity.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2397-sub?elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
It&#8217;s happening because Democrats have decided that posturing over ICE is more important than basic safety standards and citizen protections all over the United States. 
Senate majority leader John Thune is not wrong when he says that Democrats seem to believe that the current shutdown is good for their left-wing base. For them, it&#8217;s all about politics, and it always has been.
In last fall’s shutdown by the Democrats, the whole government was shut down for 46 days. Remember Chuck Schumer saying, “Every day gets better for us”? Now you have Hawaii senator Brian Schatz, a member of the Democrat leadership in this shutdown, saying. “We are very serene.”
It’s all playing politics and has been from the beginning. They think this is really good with their base. Their left-wing base won&#8217;t take yes for an answer, and so the Democrats won’t either. But they&#8217;re going to have to, because at some point, people will realize that it is the Democrats who are blockading and have been blockading funding to the Department of Homeland Security.
This is very simple. The Democrats are shutting down the Department of Homeland Security. Everyone knows this. All they have to do is pass a clean funding bill for DHS.
Instead, Democrats seem to think they can insult their way to political victory.
Jimmy Kimmel randomly insulted the new DHS secretary, Markwayne Mullin, for the great crime of being a plumber, which is a weird take from Jimmy Kimmel, who was a shock-jock radio sports guy.
I was informed that it&#8217;s good that AOC was a bartender, but it&#8217;s bad that a senator who is now running DHS was a plumber?
Why?
Democrats are going even harder than that.
Brandon Johnson, the ridiculous mayor of Chicago, debuted his own snowplow truck festooned with a banner stating “Abolish ICE,” because he&#8217;s abolishing genuine ice, but he also wants to abolish ICE. 
Genius-level politicking.
Rep. Thomas Suozzi is arguing for full-scale legalization of illegal immigrants.
Democrats seem to believe that illegal immigrants roaming free is more important than you being able to get to your plane on time.
How pathetic is the Left on these issues?
The Loyola University of Chicago student newspaper —the campus newspaper of murdered student Sheridan Gorman — issued a formal apology for calling her murderer an illegal immigrant.
I&#8217;m not kidding. She was murdered, and the student newspaper stated, “In the body of the original post, we describe the man who was charged as an illegal immigrant using language provided by the Department of Homeland Security. That language does not align with the Associated Press style, nor does it align with the values of this newspaper. No human&#8217;s existence is illegal, and we quickly changed our wording to reflect that. We acknowledge the harm such language can cause, and the power and importance of the words we choose to use.” 
Ridiculous.
No one says that a human&#8217;s existence is illegal. But the term is not illegal human. The term is illegal immigrant.
They are more concerned about the terminology used to address illegal immigration than they are about the fact that an illegal immigrant allegedly murdered one of their students.
The Democrats aren&#8217;t just defending illegal immigration. They&#8217;re defending crime wholesale.
A couple of years ago, we visited the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia, which was basically an open-air fentanyl market, one of the most horrifying things I&#8217;ve ever seen in person.
Now, the Philadelphia D.A. Larry Krasner is threatening to prosecute IRS agents.
This is how crazy Democrats are. They believe that ICE agents ought to be prosecuted, but illegal immigrants ought not, and you should wait in line at the airport because of this.
The open lawbreaking in Philadelphia and the open anti-Americanism are astonishing. Pro-Iran, pro-Hamas, pro-terrorist protesters in Philadelphia even openly celebrated the killing of American troops.
For many of these folks, the lawbreaking is the point. The anti-Americanism is the point.
It makes you wonder on a broader level: Why do so many people in the Democratic Party seem so sanguine about a wide-open border, about importing people that we can&#8217;t vet, about allowing the taxpayer to pay for all these bills?
The answer is that a lot of the people in the Democratic Party are totally fine with anti-Americanism. They like anti-Americanism.
Ilhan Omar, another immigrant we never should have admitted to the United States, showed her wild hatred for America and our allies, ranting:
<blockquote>I&#8217;ve lived through war. I know it is not a game. It is never a one-time cost. It cannot be reduced to a soundbite by politicians who have no regard for the cost of human life when it comes to warfare. War is not paid for a dollar alone. It is paid in the lives of young Americans who we sent to fight this war.</blockquote>
Her pretending that she gives a damn about American soldiers is really galling. This is a woman who wrote a letter of support to a judge for a person who tried to join ISIS. This is a woman who said “something happened to some people” regarding 9/11.
Ilhan Omar has yet to find a terrorist group she cannot find some sort of excuse for.
All of this, of course, is part and parcel of a third-world strategy to undermine the United States. It suggests that people suffering in the Third World are the fault of the United States, and thus the United States must pay.
And all of this falls under the rubric of the Democratic Party not giving a damn about Americans.

Senate GOP Rejects Democrats’ Latest Bid To End DHS Shutdown

You’re In An Endless TSA Line Because Of Democrats

Ben Shapiro

Chuck Schumer

Democrats

Jimmy Kimmel

John Thune

Opinion

President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he would sign an order directing the Department of Homeland Security to pay the Transportation Safety Administration despite the ongoing partial government shutdown.
Trump blamed Democrats in the Senate for showing more concern for illegal aliens than for the American people and continuing to block funding for DHS.
&#8220;The Radical Left Democrats, and their &#8216;Leader,&#8217; Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, have made it very clear where they stand, and that is, ON THE SIDE OF CRIMINAL ILLEGAL ALIENS, AND NOT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE,&#8221; Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. &#8220;They are refusing to fund Immigration Enforcement unless the Republicans agree to their Open Border Policies, which will never, ever happen again.&#8221;
The president went on to attack Democrats for allowing millions of illegals to enter the United States unvetted during previous administrations: &#8220;They almost destroyed our Country, allowing 25 Million People to enter from Prisons, Mental Institutions, and Insane Asylums, those that are Drug Dealers, and thousands of Murderers, many of whom killed more than one person.&#8221;
Trump concluded with his plan to solve the problem: and executive order that would direct newly-sworn-in Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to pay TSA agents immediately.
&#8220;Because the Democrats have recklessly created a true National Crisis, I am using my authorities under the Law to protect our Great Country, as I always will do!&#8221; he explained. &#8220;Therefore, I am going to sign an Order instructing the Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, to immediately pay our TSA Agents in order to address this Emergency Situation, and to quickly stop the Democrat Chaos at the Airports. It is not an easy thing to do, but I am going to do it! I want to thank our hardworking TSA Agents and also, ICE, for the incredible help they have given us at the Airports. I will not allow the Radical Left Democrats to hold our Country hostage any longer.&#8221;
Democrats have repeatedly voted against funding for DHS, demanding reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) before they will sign off on the package. Among their demands are judicial warrants for immigration enforcement actions and a ban on masks for federal immigration agents. The resulting partial government shutdown has impacted pay for the TSA in addition to the U.S. Coast Guard and several others agencies.

President Trump Attends Swearing In Ceremony For New DHS Secretary Mullin

Trump Steps In On TSA Pay, Warns Dems Cannot ‘Hold Our Country Hostage’

Trump Steps In On TSA Pay, Warns Dems Cannot 'Hold Our Country Hostage'

Donald Trump

Government Shutdown

Politics

Critics of the War Department&#8217;s purchase of steak and lobster have largely fallen silent in the face of overwhelming evidence that this is standard practice for troops about to deploy. But while they were going, they were loud — and they were all Democrats.
 Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) blasted War Secretary Pete Hegseth on social media and accused him of wasting taxpayer money on luxuries such as “fruit baskets, Herman Miller recliners, ice cream machines, Alaskan king crabs, and a Steinway &amp; Sons grand piano.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Hegseth spent $93 billion in one month – roughly the cost of extending the ACA tax credits for THREE YEARS.
But instead of lowering American’s healthcare costs, Hegseth used millions of taxpayer dollars on fruit baskets, Herman Miller recliners, ice cream machines, Alaskan… <a href="https://t.co/bdCHRWip3P">https://t.co/bdCHRWip3P</a>
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenSchumer/status/2031497646892872011?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2026</a></blockquote>
California Governor Gavin Newsom similarly circulated a <a href="https://x.com/GovPressOffice/status/2031441496801529864">viral post</a> accusing the Pentagon of blowing through $93 billion in spending during a single month.
By now, countless commentators have pointed out that there&#8217;s nothing unusual about serving steak and lobster to troops on the verge of deploying. Military leaders have <a href="https://www.army.mil/article/284118/food_connects_us_nutrition_community_important_for_service_members">frequently emphasized</a> that small comforts can have an outsized impact on morale, particularly for troops stationed overseas or serving in stressful environments. And, according to a recent analysis from government watchdog group <a href="https://openthebooks.substack.com/p/pentagon-should-focus-on-defense">Open the Books,</a> the War Department purchased much of its steak and lobster towards the end of the last fiscal year, when federal agencies often accelerate purchases before budgets reset.
Faced with all this evidence, critics have been eating crow. But perhaps they should also eat fungus.
In 2024, the Biden Defense Department awarded nearly $1.5 million to The Better Meat Company, a California firm that develops alternative protein products using fungal roots grown in bioreactors. The company’s process feeds water and nutrients to the fungus in a fermentation tank, producing a gray semi-solid material that can be processed into protein ingredients.
Pentagon officials at the time insisted the project was not intended to place synthetic meat substitutes in soldiers’ Meals Ready-to-Eat (MREs). Instead, a Pentagon spokesman said the funding supported a facility for producing shelf-stable protein ingredients that could help sustain troops deployed around the world.
“Where was the outrage when the Biden administration wanted to force-feed franken-meat to America’s military heroes?&#8221; Jack Hubbard, executive director of the watchdog Center for the Environment and Welfare, said. &#8220;&#8216;Ick&#8217; factor aside, there are no long-term health studies on the effects of lab-grown meat. Our armed forces deserve better.”
Hegseth has made combating the Biden administration&#8217;s woke policies central to his mission at the helm of the War Department, saying that doing so boosts morale and makes the country safer.
“We became the woke department. But not anymore,” Hegseth said during a 2025 <a href="https://www.war.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/4318689/secretary-of-war-pete-hegseth-addresses-general-and-flag-officers-at-quantico-v/">address</a> to generals and flag officers. “This administration has done a great deal from day one to remove the social justice, politically correct, and toxic ideological garbage that had infected our department, to rip out the politics.”
Hegseth added that the effort included eliminating programs he said distracted from the military’s core mission.
“No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship. No more division, distraction, or gender delusions,” he said. “As I&#8217;ve said before and will say again, we are done with that sh*t. I&#8217;ve made it my mission to uproot the obvious distractions that made us less capable and less lethal.”

US-IRAN-CONFLICT-DEFENSE

FLASHBACK: Dems Outraged Over Surf And Turf For Troops Were OK Feeding Them Fungus

Department of War

Food

Pentagon

U.S. Military

A hot debate has now broken out in the Republican Party over the so-called SAVE Act.
Republicans support the SAVE Act, which would force voter ID nationally. Democrats in the Senate have been holding it up.
President Trump correctly <a href="https://www.c-span.org/program/white-house-event/president-trump-addresses-house-republicans-at-annual-retreat/674954">points out </a>that the SAVE Act is quite popular with Americans.
“Even the Democrats — you saw the numbers today?— Democrats voted 86% that this stuff should be passed,” he noted. “With the Republicans, you&#8217;re at 98%. But Democrats are at 86%, except for the people that run the Democrat Party, because they want to try and win elections illegally. The only reason you vote against voter I.D. is because you want to cheat. There&#8217;s no other reason. They come up with reasons; they say it&#8217;s racist. That&#8217;s their number one: racist. Then they have to explain it, and they&#8217;re just sitting there mumbling. They can&#8217;t explain it.”
President Trump has also been having fun <a href="https://www.c-span.org/program/white-house-event/president-trump-addresses-house-republicans-at-annual-retreat/674954">mocking</a> Chuck Schumer: “It&#8217;s the easiest thing we have. Now the problem is you call it the SAVE Act, and nobody knew what the hell the SAVE Act was. &#8230; It&#8217;s called ‘The Save America Act’. And I saw Schumer yesterday: ‘We will stop Save America.’ He’s getting killed. They can&#8217;t do it.”
President Trump says that Republicans should <a href="https://www.c-span.org/program/white-house-event/president-trump-addresses-house-republicans-at-annual-retreat/674954">not approve anything</a> until the SAVE Act passes:
“But they have to get it done. Because if we don&#8217;t get this done, if it takes six months, I&#8217;m for not approving anything. I don&#8217;t think we should approve anything until this is approved. And they can&#8217;t win politically. Look, you have them in a corner, and they&#8217;re listening to every word I&#8217;m saying. It doesn&#8217;t matter because they can&#8217;t win it politically. Because when they say, ‘We don&#8217;t want voter identification. We don&#8217;t want proof of citizenship,” all these things are just losers for them.”
Chuck Schumer, for his part, keeps arguing that if we clean the voter rolls of people who have moved or are dead and require people to use voter ID, somehow this is going to result in mass voter disenfranchisement, a proposition that pretty much no one actually agrees with. 
“It allows ICE to kick tens of millions of people off the rolls, off the rolls, and they don&#8217;t tell them until Election Day,” he <a href="https://www.c-span.org/program/news-conference/senate-democratic-agenda/675075">huffed</a>. “And you show them, you say. ‘You&#8217;re not registered anymore, you&#8217;re not registered here, you&#8217;re not on the rolls.’ And they say, ‘I didn&#8217;t know that.’ This is a bill that destroys the country. And it is not about showing ID when you show up to vote. It&#8217;s about the voter registration rolls, destroying them, purging them, not letting people know, and taking the rights in an algorithm put together by ICE, put together by DOGE and Musk. It&#8217;s an outrage.” 
If you just say DOGE or Musk three times in a row, Beetlejuice appears, according to Chuck Schumer.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2385-iranian-propaganda-syndrome?elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
This is silly. If you can&#8217;t abide by the law with regard to voting, you shouldn&#8217;t vote. And if you moved and you didn&#8217;t tell them you moved, then you probably should tell them you moved. Democrats trying to turn basic adult functions into some sort of Mensa test are lying. It’s not that hard to register to vote. It&#8217;s not hard to determine where and how to vote. People have been figuring it out for decades.
But now, because Democrats are trying to filibuster the SAVE Act in the Senate, to prevent it from passing by forcing Republicans to find 60 votes in the Senate, President Trump is talking about killing the filibuster.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, by contrast, says, no, we&#8217;re not doing that.
“We don&#8217;t have the votes either to proceed, get on a talking filibuster, nor to sustain one if we got on it,” he <a href="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-EQvN-hLoz0">stated</a>. “But that is just a function of math. &#8230; I understand the president&#8217;s got a passion to see this issue addressed, as we all do. We’ll continue to make that argument because I think it&#8217;s important that everybody understands this is really about the votes. It&#8217;s about the math.”
A lot of people are asking, why doesn&#8217;t Thune kill the filibuster? The answer is simple. He&#8217;s concerned if Republicans kill the filibuster, the next time the Democrats have a majority in the House and the Senate and run the presidency, they simply run roughshod over Republicans and essentially end any chance of possible parity in future elections, all with just 51 votes. They add new states, they add new senators, and they change the voting rules and all the rest.
There have been two arguments that have been put out there to counter John Thune’s argument. First, there&#8217;s the argument that Republicans should end what&#8217;s known as the “talking filibuster.” When most people think about the filibuster, they think of Jimmy Stewart talking for hours until he faints in the film “Mr. Smith goes to Washington.”
It takes 60 votes to ensure “cloture,” which means to stop a talking filibuster. Under Senate Rule 19, each senator can speak twice per day. Members of the same party can hold the floor continuously. Theoretically, Johnson could force Democrats to do that, get up there and just talk and talk and talk and talk.
In the past, however, opposing parties have allowed the so-called “silent filibuster,” a filibuster that all agree would be possible in the absence of talking for days at a time. People basically say, “You don&#8217;t have 60 votes. Instead of making us talk for weeks on end, we are not going to do that. You don’t have 60 votes to kill it anyway.”
So why doesn&#8217;t John Thune kill the silent filibuster? There are a few practical reasons. First, if 47 Democrats each gave six-hour speeches and did that continuously in a cycle, they could stop the business of the Senate for months. The only way to keep the Senate in session, in order to keep the pressure on Democrats to keep talking, would be for Republicans to maintain a quorum, meaning 51 senators nearby. If they didn&#8217;t have a quorum, if somebody goes home and suddenly there are 49 senators, Democrats can move to adjourn the session, the clock restarts, and all the senators can speak twice again. Which means that killing the silent filibuster basically ensures pain, but not gain.
That&#8217;s not going to stop critics from attacking Senator Thune and other Republicans as somehow feeble or insufficient in their defense of conservative policy. That&#8217;s always the rap from people in my industry toward politicians: “The reason that Republicans don&#8217;t do enough is a lack of will. If only they had more Nietzschean willpower! Or maybe they&#8217;re corrupt?” 
 
But that&#8217;s not what&#8217;s happening. The simple case here is that in the Senate, which happens to be a more collegial body than the House, Republicans must always have one eye on the question of what happens when the political shoe is on the other foot.
Just as Democrats killed the judicial filibuster only to watch Republicans stack the Supreme Court, Republicans have to be careful not to kill the filibuster on other issues, just to watch Democrats ram through fundamental changes to the nature of American life and law.
Democrats are obstructing, there&#8217;s no question about it.
They aren’t interested in honest voting.

SchumerSAVE

The SAVE Act Standoff

Congress

House of Representatives

Iran

Mike Johnson

SAVE America Act

U.S. Senate

Between lengthy TSA lines and increased concerns about national security threats amid the conflict with Iran, conservative experts told The Daily Wire that there are serious risks associated with the continued shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, as talks in Washington stall.
DHS has faced a lapse in funding since Feb. 14, as Democrats and Republicans are at odds on federal immigration enforcement tactics, despite Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection already being heavily funded through the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” last year. Still, other agencies under DHS like TSA, FEMA, and the Coast Guard are unfunded.
“We’re dealing with a heightened threat environment right now, and we need the federal government security capabilities to be firing on all cylinders,” Nathan Sales, former special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS, said.
“If you’re a Hezbollah operative and you want to carry out an attack in the United States, you have to cross the border, and that’s a DHS responsibility,” he noted, later adding that “this is not the time to be playing politics with national security.”
Sales specifically highlighted the risks of FEMA not having the money it needs to fully operate.
“What happens if, God forbid, there is a terrorist incident on American soil and we need an immediate federal response to that,” Sales asked. “It’s not a great time for FEMA to be sitting on the sidelines either.”
Meanwhile, Garrett Exner, an adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute focusing on terrorism, national security, and defense, slammed the lack of funding for TSA as “insane,” saying &#8220;it&#8217;s not a good faith argument&#8221; for Democrats to use the other agencies under DHS as leverage for immigration reform.
“We have 11 million people that came here, and we don’t know who they are, and ICE is doing the legal business of moving those people out of the country, and Democrats are trying to stop that. They’re trying to slow it down,” Exner said, referencing the Biden-era border crisis.
Recent incidents like the attempted <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-york-city-in-heightened-state-of-alert-after-saturdays-attack?author=Brecca+Stoll&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=New+York+City+In+%E2%80%98Heightened+State+of+Alert%E2%80%99+After+Saturday%E2%80%99s+Attack" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ISIS-style terrorist attack</a> outside the New York City mayoral residence, along with the Southwest Airlines flight bomb threat over the weekend, are also sparking concerns, according to Lora Ries, the director of The Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center.
“The House passed the DHS funding bill last week, so now it’s down to the Senate, and Senate Democrats are playing chicken with terrorists in this country,” Ries said, adding that it’s a “dereliction of duty by refusing to fund securing our homeland.”
In addition, the FBI is currently investigating the Austin, Texas, bar shooting from March 1 as a possible act of terrorism, as the alleged shooter was wearing a “Property of Allah” hoodie and a pro-Iran shirt.
Outside of the security risks, those who are essential workers, like TSA agents, are now working without pay, which will likely lead to a higher number of callouts at airports nationwide.
“They’re not getting rich doing these jobs. They live paycheck to paycheck,” Ken Cuccinelli, a former top Homeland Security official during the first Trump administration, pointed out regarding TSA, as shutdowns can “dissuade people from doing those jobs.”
Cuccinelli noted potential for the shutdown to hurt “morale” within DHS, and it could also create a ripple effect as FEMA responds to disasters like the recent Potomac River sewage spill.
TSA and other essential workers, like air traffic controllers, also bore the brunt of the 43-day-long full federal government shutdown last fall, which was triggered by Democrats pushing for an extension of the Affordable Care Act’s pandemic-era subsidies, but no permanent deal on the subsidies was ultimately reached. The remainder of the federal government is fully funded through September.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem will be leaving her role at the department at the end of the month amid multiple controversies, and President Donald Trump plans to replace her with Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK). However, Noem&#8217;s ouster is not considered enough to warrant a deal with Senate Democrats.
&#8220;I’ve been asked if I would support Sen. Mullin as Noem’s replacement. The answer is a resounding NO. The rot in DHS is deep, much deeper than any individual. It’s a question of policy not personnel. The Senate should not consider any DHS Secretary nominee until DHS and ICE are reined in,&#8221; Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) posted to X last week.

Denver International Airport scenes

Top National Security Experts Warn Dems ‘Playing Chicken With Terrorists’

Immigration

National Security

Senate Democrats

Terrorism

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) doubled down on his party&#8217;s opposition to President Donald Trump, vowing on Sunday that Democrats in the U.S. Senate would never &#8220;help&#8221; Republicans to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act.
Despite the fact that the bill&#8217;s main focus — requiring valid proof of citizenship for voter registration — is popular among voters regardless of party, Schumer shared a post on X referring to the SAVE Act as &#8220;Jim Crow 2.0&#8221; and claiming that millions of people would be &#8220;disenfranchised&#8221; if it were to pass.
&#8220;The SAVE Act is Jim Crow 2.0. It would disenfranchise tens of millions of people,&#8221; Schumer <a href="https://x.com/SenSchumer/status/2030666289602072866">complained</a>. &#8220;If Trump is saying he won’t sign any bills until the SAVE Act is passed, then so be it: there will be total gridlock in the Senate. Senate Democrats will not help pass the SAVE Act under any circumstances.&#8221;
Schumer&#8217;s statement came just hours after Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/front-of-the-line-trump-says-he-wont-sign-a-thing-until-save-act-hits-his-desk">announced</a> early Sunday that he intended to prioritize the SAVE Act — nicknamed by Republicans the SAVE America Act — and would not sign anything else until he saw it on his desk.
Praising calls for Senate Republicans to use the traditional — &#8220;talking&#8221; — filibuster to force a vote on the measure, Trump said that it had to be the top priority to &#8220;pass THE SAVE AMERICA ACT, an 88% issue with ALL VOTERS.&#8221;
&#8220;It must be done immediately. It supersedes everything else. MUST GO TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE,&#8221; he added. &#8220;I, as President, will not sign other Bills until this is passed.&#8221;
In addition to requiring proof of citizenship — either through a valid passport or a birth certificate — the SAVE Act would dramatically limit online and mail-in voter registration and would reduce mail-in balloting to military service-members or those limited by illness, disability, or travel. States would also be required to routinely examine voter rolls in order to ensure that non-citizens were not being registered to vote. Criminal penalties would apply to any officials who registered voters with improper identification.
Despite the fact that a majority of Americans support voter ID requirements generally (81%) and the SAVE America Act specifically (71%), according to a <a href="https://harvardharrispoll.com/press-release-february-2026/">Harvard Harris poll</a> taken just after Trump&#8217;s State of the Union address, elected Democrats like Schumer have continued to insist that requiring proof of citizenship would necessarily disenfranchise voters who cannot access the proper documents.
The SAVE Act passed the House in February.

Longest Shutdown Tests Air Travel, Federal Workers And Patience

Schumer Melts Down Over Trump Voter Crackdown Push — Hints At Next Democrat Move

Senate

The House voted to end the government shutdown on Tuesday in a 217 to 214 bipartisan vote, and the appropriations bills will head to President Donald Trump’s desk for his signature.
The spending package returned to the House after the White House and Senate Democrats agreed to split Department of Homeland Security funding from the rest of the broader legislation. Lawmakers instead opted for a continuing resolution to fund DHS while immigration enforcement policies remain under debate. The CR for DHS is set to expire on Feb. 13, while the other bills would fund the federal government through September.
The House had already passed the spending bills, but they were punted back to the chamber after pressure from Senate Democrats for the DHS split following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last month.
Some Republican lawmakers wanted the SAVE Act, a bill that would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote, inserted into the package to send it back to the Senate.
The proposal has already passed the House, but it has not progressed in the Senate, with GOP House lawmakers calling on Senate Rules Committee Chair Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to get the process started.
However, Trump said Monday that there should be no changes to the spending package the Senate approved on Friday.
“I am working hard with Speaker Johnson to get the current funding deal, which passed in the Senate last week, through the House and to my desk, where I will sign it into Law, IMMEDIATELY!” Trump posted to Truth Social at the time.
“There can be NO CHANGES at this time. We will work together in good faith to address the issues that have been raised, but we cannot have another long, pointless, and destructive Shutdown that will hurt our Country so badly — One that will not benefit Republicans or Democrats. I hope everyone will vote, YES!” He continued.
As for the DHS debate, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) expects tension in Washington.
“Next week and the week after will be intense. The two sides are pretty far apart,” Johnson (R-LA) told Punchbowl News on Tuesday.
Democrats have a long list of demands that they want for ICE and CBP to limit their current immigration enforcement tactics, including the end of masking for agents.
“No more anonymous agents. No more secret operatives,” Schumer said last week.
“These are common-sense reforms – ones that Americans know and expect from law enforcement,” he added.

President Trump Presents The Mexican Border Defense Medal At The White House

Government Shutdown To End As House Sends Spending Package To Trump

President Donald Trump says he wants to move forward with the federal government spending package without any changes, as the government has remained shut down since last weekend.
Some Republicans, like Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), have advocated for including the SAVE Act in the package, which would require documentary proof of citizenship in order to become a registered voter — though Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said such a move would be a dealbreaker if appropriations bills returned to the chamber with it included.
“There can be NO CHANGES at this time,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post, saying that he wants the bill to be signed into law right away, and that he’s “working hard with Speaker Mike Johnson.”
“We will work together in good faith to address the issues that have been raised, but we cannot have another long, pointless and destructive Shutdown that will hurt our Country so badly — One that will not benefit Republicans or Democrats. I hope everyone will vote, YES!” he added.
Last week, the White House brokered a deal with Schumer to pass the funding bills and secure Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding through a short-term continuing resolution — even as Democrats want to see more regulations on federal immigration enforcement. Changes being demanded by the Democrats range from a switch from administrative to judicial warrants for immigration arrests to the end of masking for immigration authorities, despite doxxing concerns having been raised amid a surge in assaults against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
The House Rules Committee is currently meeting to go through the procedural process to get the funding bills up to the House floor on Tuesday.
Johnson told a scrum of reporters on Monday afternoon that “we’re gonna get this job done, get the government reopened.”
Although Johnson has a one-seat Republican majority, the spending bills prior to the DHS deal were already approved by the House last month before they headed to the Senate.
For the current version of the spending bills, Appropriations Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) indicated during the rules committee hearing that she is going to back the spending package, saying, “It gives us time, and it gives us leverage to secure the protections we need for our communities,” according to the Washington Examiner.
Schumer lambasted the SAVE Act as a relic of the Jim Crow era, despite similar policies already being in place in multiple states. “The SAVE Act is nothing more than Jim Crow 2.0. It would disenfranchise millions of Americans,” he posted to X. &#8220;Every single Senate Democrat will vote against any bill that contains it. Speaker Johnson should tell SAVE Act Republicans to stand down or else this shutdown will be on them.&#8221;

Trump Seeks Quick End To Shutdown: ‘NO CHANGES’

WASHINGTON – Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said the partial government shutdown would continue if a major voter registration bill known as the “SAVE Act” is included in government spending legislation. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) is leading an effort to have the measure added to the package.
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act would require states to obtain documentary proof of U.S. citizenship and identity to register to vote, a requirement already in place in a small number of states.
&#8220;I have said it before and I&#8217;ll say it again, the SAVE Act would impose Jim Crow-type laws to the entire country and is dead on arrival in the Senate,&#8221; Schumer said in a statement on Monday. &#8220;It is a poison pill that will kill any legislation that it is attached to. If House Republicans add the SAVE Act to the bipartisan appropriations package it will lead to another prolonged Trump government shutdown.”
&#8220;Let&#8217;s be clear, the SAVE Act is not about securing our elections,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;It is about suppressing voters. The SAVE Act seeks to disenfranchise millions of American citizens, seize control of our elections, and fan the flames of election skepticism and denialism,” adding that it is “reminiscent of Jim Crow era laws and would expand them to the whole of America.”
“Republicans want to restore Jim Crow and apply it from one end of this country to the other. It will not happen. Democrats will go all out to defeat the SAVE Act and defend free and fair elections.”
Luna responded to the reports of Schumer’s opposition by posting on X that “the SAVE Act is dead on arrival unless Thune removes the filibuster or Democrats break from Schumer to save their own billions of dollars in projects.”
The Senate sent five spending bills and a short-term Department of Homeland Security continuing resolution to the House under a deal between the White House and Schumer to split DHS funding from the other appropriations measures, allowing immigration negotiations to continue without a prolonged government shutdown.
The House had already passed six appropriations bills prior to the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a leftist protester who was killed by federal immigration agents last month. If the House makes further changes to the spending package, it will have to return to the Senate. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he wants to see the shutdown end by Tuesday.
“Our intention is by Tuesday, all agencies of the federal government, except for that one, and then we’ll have two weeks of good faith negotiations, to figure it out,” Johnson told the NBC News program. “Republicans are going do the responsible thing and fund the government.”
The House Rules Committee is expected to meet at 4 p.m. to begin the procedural steps needed to bring the funding bills to the floor.

Schumer Warns Shutdown Will Continue If Major Proposal Is Added To Funding Package

Anna Paulina Luna

Elections

Voter ID

WASHINGTON—The partial government shutdown is in full swing after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the White House agreed to pass five funding bills separate from contentious Department of Homeland Security funding.
The majority of the federal government <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senate-reaches-funding-deal-with-shutdown-still-set-to-begin-at-midnight?author=Cameron+Arcand&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Senate+Reaches+Funding+Deal%2C+With+Shutdown+Still+Set+To+Begin+At+Midnight">shut down</a> at midnight on February 1, after the Senate voted to carve Homeland Security funding out of its spending bill, which has yet to pass the House of Representatives. House Speaker Mike Johnson said on “Meet the Press” Sunday that he’s confident the shutdown will be brief, and he’s hoping to see it end by Tuesday.
“Our intention is by Tuesday, all agencies of the federal government, except for that one, and then we’ll have two weeks of good faith negotiations, to figure it out,” Johnson said. &#8220;Republicans are going do the responsible thing and fund the government.&#8221;
But it is unclear how many House Democrats will back the spending package, given that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) was not part of the deal between the White House and Schumer, saying in a statement on Friday that the caucus “will evaluate the spending legislation passed by the Senate on its merits and then decide how to proceed legislatively.”
The House Rules Committee is set to meet Monday afternoon in hopes to move the package forward. The new deal swaps DHS funding for a continuing resolution that covers money for the agency through Feb. 13, whereas the other bills covered funds through the end of the fiscal year in September.
Homeland Security funding became a flashpoint for Democrats after the killing of Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis. Democrats are calling for sweeping changes to the Trump administration&#8217;s immigration policies, with some going so far as to call for the total defunding of Homeland Security.
Their defunding efforts may be fruitless, as the immigration agencies were largely funded by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Still, Democrats seem hopeful that they can leverage the entire department’s funding, which includes the budgets of FEMA and TSA, to push for reform. Schumer and other Democrats are asking for sweeping changes to ICE and Border Patrol, including the ending of masking for agents and the use of judicial warrants as opposed to administrative ones, which could make some arrests much more difficult, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/heres-how-democrats-could-cripple-ice-without-defunding-dhs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Daily Wire</a> reported.
“There is currently not a structure in the federal government to add millions of judicial immigration warrants,&#8221; a federal official told The Daily Wire. &#8220;This effort is being pushed to roadblock the deportation agenda of the president.&#8221;
Prior to Pretti&#8217;s death, the House had approved all of the government spending bills and sent them to the Senate. There are 12 appropriations bills in total, six of which President Donald Trump has already signed.

Partial Government Shutdown Fully Underway As Congress Takes Up Spending Bills

The Senate could still strike a deal to avert a government shutdown, as reports indicate that Republicans are warming up to the possibility of splitting Department of Homeland Security funding from the broader spending package. As of Thursday morning, lawmakers are also considering a short-term continuing resolution to fund DHS, which would allow negotiations to proceed without triggering an immediate lapse in funding.
The House is currently out of session after passing six crucial spending bills to keep the government open last week, but the debate over DHS funding has become central to a potential shutdown. The issue was thrust into the national spotlight following the fatal Border Patrol shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Democrats are calling for restrictions on the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said “we’re getting closer” to reaching an agreement that would avert a shutdown, according to the <a href="https://x.com/DISivak/status/2016899710854836519?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Washington Examiner</a>.
“My hope and expectation is that if the White House and Senate Dems, they work this out, that they&#8217;ll be able to produce the votes that are necessary to get it passed,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has been eager to avoid another government shutdown like last year&#8217;s, when Democrats stalled funding negotiations while pushing to extend pandemic-era Affordable Care Act subsidies, a demand that ultimately went unmet.
A White House official told The Daily Wire on background Thursday that “President Trump has been consistent – he wants the government to remain open, and the Administration has been working with both parties to ensure the American people don’t have to endure another shutdown.”
“A shutdown would risk disaster response funding and more vital resources for the American people,” the statement continued.
As of Thursday morning, details of a potential continuing resolution remain scarce, and even if an agreement is reached, a broader fight is likely to erupt in Congress over what conditions, if any, should be attached to DHS funding. The debate would give lawmakers in both parties an opportunity to advance their priorities.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) unveiled his wishlist for immigration policy reforms on Wednesday, calling for an end to masking by federal immigration officers, stopping “roving patrols,” and greater transparency of officers&#8217; identities.
“No more anonymous agents. No more secret operatives,” Schumer said, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/schumer-makes-bold-immigration-enforcement-demands-as-shutdown-odds-increase?author=Cameron+Arcand&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Schumer+Makes+Bold+Immigration+Enforcement+Demands+As+Shutdown+Odds+Increase" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Daily Wire</a> reported.
“These are common-sense reforms – ones that Americans know and expect from law enforcement,” he further added.
In the House, Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK) warned Democrats on Wednesday against forcing a government shutdown, noting that the spending bills have already passed the lower chamber.
“The facts are simple. These bills were fully negotiated and sent to Democrats in both the House and Senate in the exact form they requested. That was the deal they asked for – and that was the deal they received. Do Democrats really want to shut down the government for the second time in three months? And with what result?&#8221; Cole stated.
&#8220;A partial government shutdown or continuing resolution does not achieve their objective. It actually gives Congress less authority – and resources for ICE body-worn cameras and deescalation training are lost. What this moment calls for is reason and responsibility, even if it is politically inconvenient,&#8221; he continued, noting the impact a shutdown will have on FEMA, military, and air travel, saying that &#8220;breaking a negotiated agreement is not leadership – it is abdication.&#8221;

Senators Hold Their Policy Luncheons At The Capitol

Here’s How Congress Could Avert A Shutdown Amid DHS Funding Fight

homeland security

The partisan battle lines are being drawn as a federal government shutdown on Friday appears increasingly likely.
Democrats have said that they want the DHS funding bill separate from other spending bills, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced a list of immigration-related demands on Wednesday during a press conference on Capitol Hill, including no more masking of agents, no “roving patrols,” and more accountability measures like body cameras and clearer identification of authorities.
“No more anonymous agents. No more secret operatives,” he said, claiming that Democrats are “united” behind the proposals.
“These are common-sense reforms – ones that Americans know and expect from law enforcement,” Schumer continued.
“Let me be clear: Democrats stand ready today to pass the five bipartisan bills in the Senate, but the DHS bill needs serious work,” he said. Some Democrats were invited to the White House to discuss ways to avert a shutdown, but they did not take the offer up, according to <a href="https://x.com/AlexMillerFox1/status/2016614243462713633?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fox News</a>.
In addition, Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) has posted on X that he will not support DHS funding until key Trump adviser Stephen Miller is fired from the White House. Many Democrats and a small number of Trump-critical Republicans, such as Sens. Lisa Murkowski (AK) and Thom Tillis (NC), have publicly stated they would like to see leadership changes made following the Alex Pretti shooting in Minneapolis amid Homeland Security&#8217;s Operation Metro Surge.
As for Republicans, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) indicated that there is some GOP support for separating the DHS funding component from the other spending bills needed to keep the federal government funded, according to <a href="https://x.com/alexanderbolton/status/2016596283197194658?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Hill</a>.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said a lot of the discussion about dividing up the spending bills to isolate the DHS funds is “all hypotheticals at this point. And I would reserve optionality to consider that,” <a href="https://x.com/ChadPergram/status/2016599586626760706?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fox News</a> reported.
“But I think the best path forward, as I said, is to keep the package intact [&#8230;] if the bill goes back to the House of Representatives [&#8230;] who knows what happens with it over here,” he continued. However, the lawmaker said he wants to get the six spending bills approved without the legislation needing to go back to the House, which is out of session this week anyway.
Earlier this week, Senate Republican Conference Chair Tom Cotton (R-AR) pushed back against the possibility of a “mob veto” by Democrats, as the administration warns that a lapse in funding will harm the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Much of the funding for the president’s immigration goals was already signed into law in July under the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
If the government does close, it would be the second time in just three months — and some are still recovering from the nation’s longest government shutdown, which lasted for 43 days in the fall. That shutdown revolved around Affordable Care Act subsidies — and a solution still has not been reached on that front.

US Government Shutdown Looms With Trump, Democrats At Odds

Schumer Makes Bold Immigration Enforcement Demands As Shutdown Odds Increase

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