The NPR Politics Podcast - Will record TSA wait times spur a DHS funding deal?

Episode Date: March 26, 2026

Thursday marks the 41st day since funding for the Department of Homeland Security lapsed, and congressional negotiators seem to be at a stalemate. We discuss where each side stands and how public frustration over long airport security lines could pressure lawmakers to reach a deal.This episode: voting correspondent Miles Parks, congressional reporter Sam Gringlas, and senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro.This podcast was produced by Casey Morell and Bria Suggs, and edited by Rachel Baye.Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.Listen to every episode of the NPR Politics Podcast sponsor-free, unlock access to bonus episodes with more from the NPR Politics team, and support public media when you sign up for The NPR Politics Podcast+ at plus.npr.org/politics.To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Miles Parks. I cover voting. I'm Sam Greenglass. I cover Congress. And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent. And we are recording this at 12.38 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, March 26th. And as of today, the Department of Homeland Security has been without funding for 41 days. Sam, there was talk earlier this week that Congress might be close to a new funding deal for DHS. Where does that say? stand now. So before we get into any of this, I just want to put out a little disclaimer that the state of play in this moment that we are talking could be totally different a few hours from now, because that has been pretty much how this week has played out. It has been constant whiplash from, you know, optimism about a deal to all sides being really far apart, to talks picking up again and then floundering again. This morning, we are hearing from top Senate Republicans that they have given Democrats their best and last offer. Democrats have said they're seeing signs of progress right now. But again, that is so different from where we were just last night when I left the Capitol

when lawmakers were in a really foul mood. I mean, even members of the Senate that are usually really cheerful when they answer questions from reporters seemed so incredibly frustrated. Well, I do wonder whether part of that is this public pressure that seems to be building. It wasn't really apparent the first couple days. DHS was showing. shutdown, but I feel like the Transportation Security Administration issue here in terms of, it sounds like a number of workers have quit their jobs. These are employees who are not getting paid, and that's leading to longer lines at airports. How is that playing into, you know, these negotiations? Yeah, I mean, something we often talk about is how long a shutdown lasts can depend a lot on how much members of the public are actually feeling it.

and we have certainly seen people at airports feel in it this week. We also heard from the acting administrator of the Transportation Security Administration who testified in the house this week. And she told lawmakers that airports are dealing with the highest wait times in TSA's history. Absences of officers are topping 40% in some airports around the country. And she also said that more than 480 officers have quit during this shutdown because, of course, they are going without pay. And so, yeah, I think that will be a huge factor in determining the speed that Congress

feels like they have to act on this. Domenica, why do you think the TSA stuff has kind of broken through this week in a way maybe didn't initially? Well, I mean, I think the longer this went on, that was always going to be the case, because people are going to look at their televisions, they're going to feel it in their own travel if they do travel. And even if they don't travel, you know, all of what they see on social media or, again, on TV is going to be these long lines in various airports, even if they're not all over the country.

I think it's been pretty sporadic where some places you've had really long lines, other places you've had shorter weights. And I think that it goes to this idea of dysfunction in the government in general and people wondering why this continues to go on, especially the further removed the country is from the shooting of the two American citizens in Minnesota. So Sam, at the core of this dispute, is Democrats' demands for reform related to immigration enforcement after the two shootings, Domenico mentioned? Can you remind us what the actual reforms that Democrats are hoping for are? Yeah, Democrats are asking for a host of changes to rein in the tactics of immigration

enforcement officers. Top among them are some lower hanging fruit that we have heard some openness to from the White House, things like requiring officer-worn. body cameras. But then there are also some asks that Democrats say are really important that the White House has called non-starters, things like requiring judicial warrants for immigration agents to enter homes or businesses, and also banning immigration agents from wearing masks. And right now, Democrats are saying that they are not going to vote for any funding deal that includes any money for ICE unless they get some of these reforms. Okay. And then what are Republicans willing to offer?

Are there any of those reforms, I guess, that they are willing to negotiate on or where do they stand? Yeah, there are some, but what Republicans have put on the table for most of this week is a funding deal that would include money for DHS, but exclude money for enforcement and removal operations, this unit within ICE that deals with some of the policy changes that Democrats are asking for. But the catch is that Democrats say they are not going to fund ICE at all without these reforms that they have been pushing for, what they're concerned about. is that if you even fund part of ICE, that the administration could simply move some money around from other parts of that agency and use it for enforcement and removal. ICE got a huge influx of money from the big, beautiful bill. And so aren't those workers still getting paid? I guess I'm wondering how that is playing into the leverage that Democrats actually have

when it comes to the shutdown. Yeah. Congress gave Immigration and Customs Enforcement some $75 billion last summer as part of the party line, one big beautiful bill act that Republicans passed. And so, yeah, there is limits to what Congress can do to rain in ice because they don't have that leverage while ICE still has plenty of funding to work with. So unlike those TSA officers, ICE agents are getting paid. And we saw this week the Trump administration deployed them to airports actually to assist TSA officers in some limited capacities as these lines start to strangle, travel at some airports. How else is President Trump kind of playing into all of this?

Well, President Trump is one reason that we have seen so much whiplash over the state of dealmaking this week. After it seemed like the president had agreed to Senate Republicans' plan to get this funding flowing again, he then came out and said that he would not accept any deal unless it also included the strict voter ID law and voting overhaul that he's been pushing for known as the Save America Act. He said that these two things had to be welded together. Now, later, Senate Republicans came up with a workaround that, you know, maybe they could do that Save America Act later as part of another party line reconciliation bill that would not require Democratic buy-in. But Trump has not yet publicly endorsed that plan. And so there is some ambiguity on how much the president is willing to back a funding bill that does not deal with this voting overhaul that he has

been really pressing for. And that's certainly been an obsession of the presidents, this, you know, Save America Voting Act. But I think a lot of people are going to look at that and say, what does that have to do exactly with DHS funding? And why would that be holding up a bill? Especially when Senate Republicans were feeling like they might be able to strike some sort of a deal that, you know, would go between Democrats and the White House. I think it's a little, you know, too soon to say whether or not Republicans in Congress would, you know, go against the president and pass something anyway, even if he didn't back it. Because, you know, at this point, they still can't get Democrats on board with that because Democrats feel like they haven't seen the reforms that they've been

wanting to see in ICE. And really, you've got, again, you've got TSA agents and people who are waiting at airports kind of stuck in the middle of all of this. All right. Let's take a quick break on on all of this in just a moment. And we're back. And, Domenico, I'm one. wondering about timing because after the shootings in Minnesota of two American citizens, there was a real public outcry and a feeling that for many Americans that Trump's immigration enforcement efforts had gone too far. But as we get weeks and months away from those shootings, do you feel like that has changed the leverage equation here for Democrats in keeping DHS shut down? You know, regardless of that exact situation, it's a little bit of a crass political axiom to say, as Rahm Emanuel used to say, never let a good political crisis go to waste.

But the point of that is that a lot of political action can happen right after something major happens and captures the attention of the country like that did. It's why you've seen the playbook from the NRA, the National Rifle Association, to say, let's take a pause here. after a mass shooting, let's not do anything rash, let's not try to pass gun legislation now, let's wait till longer out so that people can get cooler heads. And what that really means is wait so that the politics change and people settle down a little bit. And I think that in this case, Democrats may have felt like at the outset that they had some leverage to be able to get some of these changes that they want. And if this continues on and Republicans are able to point at Democrats and put the blame on them. You know, and you may hear some Democrats say,

you know, let's take this low-hanging fruit and get DHS back open and stop this partial government shutdown. But at this point, public opinion polling isn't really showing a real clear picture of who people are blaming and whether or not they think that Democrats or Republicans should hang on to the position that they have. For example, there was a CBSUGO poll out that said that Americans were pretty unfavorable of Republicans holding a hard line against these changes. that Democrats want. You know, only 23% that they thought that the Republican's position

was worth being able to keep the partial shutdown. And 42% said that it wasn't. You know, it's not a huge number overall pointing blame in either party's direction. You know, and I think that there's a lot of people's minds to be made up on all this. Yeah, and Miles, I saw a clip on social media from a reporter that talked to one traveler

at an airport waiting in a really long. line who wasn't blaming Democrats or blaming Republicans, but was saying, fire them all. And I think that gets to some of this frustration more broadly with the Congress that has refused to act in many spaces. And again, this is the third shutdown in just the last couple of months. One other point, though, I would make to what you were pointing to before about, just the news cycle moving so quickly in, say, just the last six months. That first government shutdown, that was about health subsidies. That was eating up all of the oxygen in Congress. Then we had action in Venezuela and immigration, and then Iran, and then back to immigration. And so the new cycle is moving so quickly that it can be

very hard to keep focus on one particular issue for a very long time when something new is always going to be around the corner. Has that played into this? Are lawmakers bringing that up in terms of, is this really the best time to have DHS shutdown for more than a month? Yeah, I mean, this is something that I've heard from some lawmakers saying that this is a particularly dangerous time not to have the Department of Homeland Security fully funded. Though I should note that essential jobs at DHS are still being staffed when there is a shutdown, but some are working without pay like we've heard with TSA agents. Though, you know, as we've talked about in these last couple of minutes, the news cycle has moved so fast that there's a little bit less focus on Iran right now than there was just a week ago

that could again change if, you know, there is something that brings it back to the forefront of the new cycle. I mean, when we had that government shutdown, the record long government shut down last fall, a few Democrats ended up breaking ranks to vote to reopen the government. Does it seem like that's where we're headed, Sam, in terms of the most likely outcome? I don't know about most likely, but that is one potential off ramp here. We've heard from a couple of those Democrats who joined with Republicans to end the shutdown last fall that they might be open to some kind of deal that leaves aside funding for ICE, but it would have to include specific assurances to make sure that funding for one part of ICE isn't used to do immigration enforcement by just moving money

around. And that's one concern that we're hearing from some of those Democrats. And so, yeah, that is one possibility here. But so far, Democrats have remained pretty unified against the Republicans' offers. I think the real issue here is how do Democrats, you know, find an off-ramp. on this and how do Republicans wind up being able to show that they're willing to do anything to make, you know, the ICE tactics less harsh? Because, you know, there has been significant pushback in polling against the president's tactics on this. And if the president and Republicans in Congress appear to be the ones who are unlikely to budge on these harsh deportation tactics, that could be problematic politically for them. At the same time, if Democrats are handed

some compromises that Republicans tout and Democrats are the ones who seem to be, you know, saying, no, we're going to hold out for as much of everything as we want. They may have a significant part of their base that's in favor of that, but maybe not everybody. And we also have to realize at the same time, most people aren't paying attention to almost any of this, except for when the government winds up encroaching into their lives and having to see long lines at airports or, you know, being part of something where they want to, you know, be able to, you know, go travel or something like that. And, you know, when a shutdown happens and those things are impacting them. So, you know, I think you're going to have a real messaging blame game that kind of comes up here.

I think that's going to be a big piece of which side's able to say, hey, we're giving. They're not willing to take. I should just add that another dynamic here, too, is personal for lawmakers in that they are supposed to be headed off on a two-week recess over the Easter and Passover holidays. Lawmakers are wanting to get home, and so sometimes this Thursday night zone before recess can be a moment that really pushes lawmakers to come together around something. Though, again, we have also heard from Senate Majority Leader John Thune that he's willing to keep people over the weekend to keep them into the recess if this deal doesn't get done.

And so we will certainly be watching whether anything comes. together. Yeah, that old motivation of the smell of jet fuel, right? But at the same time, I think Democrats, you know, just don't trust this president to be able to say, yeah, we're going to make these changes. Don't worry about it. They want to see it in writing. They want it to be concrete, and they want to be able to show that they extracted a win here. It feels like we're in an age of eternal government shutdown one way or the other. And at the same time, I feel like I've seen polling where most people say they want lawmakers who compromise. How do we square those things. Why are we in this position where we are just constantly talking about one shutdown or another?

Oh, boy. That's a longer conversation, Miles. But, you know, I mean, in general, what we've seen over the years is Democrats and their base being more willing to let their elected officials compromise on things and say that they value compromise more. And what we've seen on the other hand is Republican rank and file voters saying that they don't want to see. compromise, they'd rather see their elected leaders stand on principle. And we've certainly seen that in the era of Trump. All right. Well, we can leave it there for today. Make sure you hit the follow button wherever you listen to your podcast to make sure you don't miss an episode. We'll be back in your feeds tomorrow. I'm Miles Parks. I cover voting. I'm Sam Greenglass. I cover Congress.

And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent. And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.