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Republicans reject Democrats’ effort to pay TSA by suspending Senate rules

Senate Republicans on Saturday voted against Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer’s (DY) unusual procedural gambit to suspend Senate rules and advance a bill through the Rules Committee to fund the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

The motion failed by a party vote of 41 to 49. He needed 60 votes to succeed.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R.S.D.) dismissed the proposal as a “convoluted” attempt to bypass the Senate Appropriations Committee, which is in talks with White House border czar Tom Homan to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, which was defunded on Feb. 14.

“This is a motion by Schumer to suspend the rules and send the House message, the bill we’re on, to the Rules Committee, which has no authority over appropriations or spending, and he’s trying to call it a vote to fund the TSA?” Thune said on the floor.

“I don’t know how you came up with this. I’ll thank you for coming up with something complicated, but this, [Democratic] “The leader says so,” he added.

Schumer framed the vote as a simple “yes or no” on whether TSA agents should be funded during the shutdown.

“If Senators want to pay TSA workers and end airport chaos, they should support my proposal,” he said.

But Thune countered that Democrats voted for the fifth time on Friday to block the House-passed bill that would fully fund the Department of Homeland Security, including the TSA.

“Numerous suggestions have been made by us for the adoption of a standing resolution to fund it all. [Homeland Security,] It includes the TSA and is constantly blocked by that party,” he said, referring to Democrats.

Democratic senators sought to score political points by arguing that nearly all Senate Republicans voted against funding the TSA, which is under increasing pressure from the 36-day shutdown.

Speaking after the vote, Democratic vice chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.) said, “Today, Senate Republicans voted against paying TSA agents because they insist on tying TSA funding to efforts to give ICE more money without fundamental reforms. This isn’t how it should work, and it’s just wrong for Republicans to block TSA agents from getting paid while airport lines grow longer across the country.”

Democrats noted that Republicans objected to a bill introduced by Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) on March 19 to pay TSA workers while negotiations on immigration enforcement reform continue, and blocked a similar proposal introduced by Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) on March 18.

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