Funding approved for US homeland security, but not ICE

The U.S. Senate has passed legislation to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security but cut funding from ICE as a weeks-long partial government shutdown caused widespread disruptions at airports.

Senate Democrats blocked DHS funding in February as they pushed to rein in the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants after federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.

The funding gap has forced tens of thousands of Transportation Security Administration employees to work without pay and prompted some airport security officials to call in sick or resign.

As the wrangling in Congress continues, President Donald Trump said Thursday he will take executive action to pay 50,000 airport security workers to address staffing shortages that are disrupting travel across the country.

The Senate bill would fund DHS components like the TSA and the U.S. Coast Guard but cut funding from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and some of Customs and Border Protection.

Lawmakers in the House of Representatives will be able to vote on the bill until Friday.

“This agreement funds TSA, the Coast Guard, FEMA and CISA, strengthens security at the border and ports of entry, and keeps America safe,” Democratic Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement. he said.

“Democrats insisted in our opposition that Donald Trump’s rogue and deadly militias should not get any more funding without serious reforms.”

Republican senator Susan Collins, who chairs the Senate appropriations committee, said Democrats were undermining Congress’ annual funding process, undermining national security and setting “a precedent they may one day regret.”

“Democrats have remained uncompromising and unreasonable in their list of demands,” he said in a statement.