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Democrats Block DHS Reopening as TSA Lines Grow Longer

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Democrats Block DHS Reopening as TSA Lines Grow Longer

People wait in long TSA lines as the partial government shutdown continues. (Photo by Peter Zay/Getty Images)

Virginia Grace McKinnon / @virginiagmck

Virginia Grace McKinnon is a journalism fellow at The Daily Signal. Send an email to Virginia Grace.

Democrats again voted down a measure to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, leaving the agency with a lapse in appropriations that is 27 days and counting.

Senate Republicans only needed seven Democrats to break ranks for the 60 votes necessary to reopen the department, but the measure failed by a vote of 51-46.

Senator John Fetterman, D-Pa., voted for the measure, while Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., voted no in order to make a motion to reconsider. Senators Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Jerry Moran, R-Kan., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., did not vote.

After two ICE protestors were shot and killed by immigration agents in Minnesota in January, Democrats have made clear they will not fund the agency without major reforms to immigration enforcement.  

The shutdown impacts various agencies within the Department of Homeland Security, including not only immigration and border-related agencies, but also the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Secret Service.

More than 300 TSA workers have quit, according to CBS News, and security lines have increased at airports across the country.  

“Today, travelers are facing TSA lines of up to nearly 3 hours long at some major airports, causing missed flights and massive delays during peak travel,” the Transportation Security Administration told USA TODAY.

“These frontline heroes received only partial paychecks earlier this month and now face their first full missed paycheck, leading to financial hardship, absences, and crippling staffing shortages.”

Democrats submitted their list of demands for the immigration agencies in February and have been negotiating with the White House, unable to find a solution.  

NEW: Schumer and Jeffries lay out 10 demands for DHS reforms pic.twitter.com/bKfVg1Ctbb— Max Cohen (@maxpcohen) February 5, 2026

NEW: Schumer and Jeffries lay out 10 demands for DHS reforms pic.twitter.com/bKfVg1Ctbb

“The White House submitted their last offer to the Democrats 12 days ago,” Thune told press on Tuesday. “Twelve days ago, no response. And so, you know, here we are, with important agencies of government that have vital national security and homeland security roles, people not getting paid.” 

“I mean, how much more cynical can you get than to play politics with issues that affect homeland security?” Thune continued.  

Democrats now want to attempt to fund only the department’s agencies that do not involve immigration, like TSA and FEMA. 

“Let’s just pass those funding bills. Let’s confine the ICE and CBP reform discussion just to those two agencies and fund the others,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said on CBS this week, arguing that the two agencies in question—Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Customs and Border Protection—received funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill passed last summer.  

“Senator [Katie] Britt last week offered a couple different times, a unanimous consent request to fund that department and those agencies, and to allow additional time for discussion with the Democrats, so we could at least get into the negotiation, and they resisted that as well,” Thune continued. 

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