President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Friday to pay Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents as checkpoint lines at airports have spiked amid the Democrats’ shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.
Trump directed DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russ Vought “to use funds that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations to provide TSA employees with the compensation and benefits that would have accrued to them if not for the Democrat-led DHS shutdown” within the confines of applicable law.
“Once regular funding for TSA has been restored, every effort should be made, as authorized by law, to adjust applicable funding accounts within DHS to ensure the continuation of DHS operations and activities consistent with planned expenditures prior to the lapse,” it adds.
Democrats have refused to fund DHS without restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and on Friday morning got concessions from Senate Republicans, prompting Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to take a victory lap.
“After weeks of negotiations, Republicans caved to our demands to fund DHS without a blank check for ICE and CBP,” Schuimer wrote in a post on X.
However, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is putting a clean 60-day continuing resolution up for a vote instead of the Senate’s bill, which passed with unanimous consent.
Johnson admonished Senate Republicans for voting for the upper chamber’s bill, which neither funds ICE nor parts of Customs and Border Protection.
“This gambit that was done last night is a joke,” Johnson said. “I’m quite convinced that it can’t be that every Senate Republican read the language of this bill.”
“We’re not doing that. And it is unconscionable to me that the Democrats would force some sort of negotiation at three o’clock in the morning and try to hoist this upon the American people and then get on their jets and go home for their holiday and pretend and think that we’re going to go along with that,” he added.
Trump on Friday afternoon again called for Senate Republicans to terminate the filibuster, which would mean a simple majority, rather than a 60-vote threshold, would be needed to pass legislation.
“The Republicans should TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER, and VOTE! Haven’t they had enough of this nonsense from the Radical Left Lunatics that are looking to destroy our Country? MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he wrote.
Read the full article here