by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 8:45 AM ET, Fri March 13, 2026
Democrats in the Senate blocked a motion to proceed to a bill that passed the House and would have ended the 28-day partial government shutdown, leaving Transportation Security Administration officers unpaid for the second time in six months.
According to The Hill, the motion failed by a vote of 51 to 46 on Thursday, March 12. The bill needed 60 votes to advance, and was the fourth time since February 12 that Democrats blocked Homeland Security funding bills, largely in part because of their demands to hold DHS, and particularly, ICE officers, accountable for their actions following the shooting deaths of two Minnesota residents earlier this year.
An estimated 300-some TSA officers have already left the agency since the partial government shutdown that left them bearing the brunt of politics without pay since February 14.
Thousands have also taken vacation time or chosen not to go to work without pay. New York’s JFK airport is seeing callout rates skyrocket to 21 percent, when the national average is only 2 percent. Travelers are also seeing hours-long lines at TSA security checkpoints in airports across the nation.
“We all know that we do not have agreement on how to deal with ICE. We know very simply that Democrats just want ICE to behave like any police department in America and use warrants and not wear masks,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.).
Republican leaders have accused Democrats of “stonewalling” negotiators and making different offers, including one short-term funding resolution that would reopen all of Homeland Security’s operations.
“I would support a resolution, which will be offered, to fund not just TSA but Coast Guard, cybersecurity, CISA, FEMA, other agencies and departments of our government that are essential not only to national security and homeland security but to make sure people can move through our airports…that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has the ability to respond to disasters,” said Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune (S.D.) said on the floor.
Schumer has proposed a bill to fund just the Transportation Security Administration, but Thune and the Republicans have rejected it. Several Democratic senators have tried, by unanimous consent, to reopen and fund only the Coast Guard, FEMA, or TSA, but all were objected to by Republicans.
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