WASHINGTON — As airport lines stretch longer every day during the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., joined Senate Republican leaders Tuesday to urge Democrats to come to the negotiating table, which she said they have not done.
The department that oversees the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Coast Guard has been without funding for 26 days. Republicans and Democrats continue to cast blame on the other side for the stalemate.
“Despite countless offers to sit down and try to find a pathway forward, they will not even have a conversation with us,” Britt, who is leading DHS negotiations, said during a GOP press conference.
But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., rebuffed Britt’s argument, saying it’s “a lot of bull.” He added that Democrats are in constant communication with the White House.
“We’re sending things back and forth. It’s a substantive problem,” Schumer told reporters. “The White House will not budge on things that Americans want like warrants, like demasking, plain and simple.”
After the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers, Senate Democrats have remained ardent in their push to enact reforms to the Trump administration’s immigration tactics. Democratic lawmakers want an end to roving patrols, more accountability for federal agents, clear identification for officers, and no masks.
The impacts of the shutdown, now in its fourth week, have escalated as spring break travel ramps up. Airports across the country have warned that travelers could face hours-long TSA screening lines as agents work without pay. The federal workers also did not receive paychecks during the longest-ever shutdown last year, which lasted 43 days.
More than 50,000 TSA agents have been working without pay, according to Republican appropriators.
Last week, Senate Democrats blocked Britt’s attempt to pass a DHS funding bill via unanimous consent.
Instead, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, offered up another bill that would fund all the agencies under DHS except for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and the secretary’s office. Republicans blocked it. Britt has maintained that the department must be fully funded.
“But if Republicans keep dragging their feet on those basic reforms we are asking for, to protect people from these rogue federal agencies, then we should at least make sure that TSA agents get paid, and FEMA is fully funded while those negotiations continue,” Murray said on the Senate floor at the time.
Republicans have also used the strikes on Iran to implore Democrats to fund the department, but lawmakers have yet to relent on their demands. President Donald Trump’s ouster of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem last week also did not change Democrats’ push for reform.
“We stand here ready to put the safety of Americans in front of (politics), and I would hope our Democratic colleagues would do the same,” Britt said.