Hardline House Republicans have thrown a Senate-passed DHS funding bill into chaos, leaving millions of passengers facing TSA hell.
Speaker Mike Johnson and the powerful House Freedom Caucus of MAGA conservatives rejected the bill passed late last night by the Senate, as it does not include funding for ICE.
‘This gambit that was done last night was a joke,’ Johnson said of the Senate bill. ‘We’re going to do something different.’
The rupture lays bare a rift between the more moderate Senate Majority Leader John Thune and his Republican colleagues in the House.
The dispute means that TSA agents will miss another paycheck on Friday as the 42-day DHS funding impasse is set to run into at least next week as millions prepare for Easter travel.
Now, Johnson is reportedly circulating a Trump-backed plan that would extend current funding levels for DHS for 60 days, but the Senate has left town, and the new plan won’t get passed until lawmakers return to Washington.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that Johnson’s plan was ‘dead on arrival.’
Meanwhile, Trump said on Thursday he’d order newly appointed DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to find cash to pay TSA workers in a gambit to calm US travelers.
Florida Republican Congressman Byron Donalds told reporters Friday that the Senate-backed bill was a ‘turd sandwich.’