What's next after House Republicans reject Senate deal to end DHS shutdown

John Yang:

Welcome to the "News Hour."

It has been a dizzying and dramatic 24 hours in the halls of Congress. Early this morning, the Senate unanimously passed a plan to immediately end the shutdown for most of the Department of Homeland Security. But, within hours, House Speaker Mike Johnson rejected it because it didn't include money for ICE and Border Patrol.

Now House Republicans are pursuing a different approach and risking a longer shutdown. Meanwhile, President Trump took executive action to pay one group, TSA workers at airports.

Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins is here to help us understand all this, if we can't understand it.

Lisa Desjardins:

Right.

John Yang:

TSA workers are really the ones that have been focused on a lot. So what happens to them in this?

Lisa Desjardins:

Let's start with them.

They haven't been paid yet, but, as you said, President Trump signed that executive order today. He would use money that was passed last year from -- borrow it from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The TSA tells us that they expect those workers to be paid by Monday.

Now, of course, all this speaks to those long lines that Americans have been seeing at some airports. We do know there's a permanent effect. Some 500 TSA workers have quit the job altogether so far. One of our senior producers spoke to TSA union operative -- officer named Johnny Jones.

He said that they are appreciative, but no one's counting on this money until it actually appears in their bank accounts. In addition, Jones told our producer Murrey Jacobson that they were stunned to realize that President Trump could have done this. This is the same kind of money he's used to already pay military members of the Coast Guard.

And one more thing, Jones said they are all tired of being used as what they feel is as pawns.

John Yang:

You know, we started the day thinking this had been settled, that there was a deal. What happened?

Lisa Desjardins:

OK. Let me take you through this; 2:30 in the morning this morning, a rainbow suddenly appeared over the United States Senate, as it happens.

Behind-the-scenes work had led to this deal, and the Senate unanimously agreed on this deal that would fund most of DHS, three-quarters of it, everything but ICE and Border Patrol.

And, at that time, the funding formula that they passed was exactly what Democrats wanted, but Democrats did not get any of the reforms that they wanted, which is something that Senate Leader Thune stressed.

Sen. John Thune (R-SD):

The reason that we're standing here right now passing a funding bill with a list of reforms, if Democrats had made the smallest effort to actually reach an agreement. But they didn't, because it's now clear to everyone Democrats didn't actually want a solution. They wanted an issue.

Lisa Desjardins:

Well, that's what he said. The Senate passed that. The Senate leaves Washington altogether, convinced everything was fine. The House comes in and, surprisingly to a lot of people, rejected the deal, surprisingly to the House, to the senators themselves.

In fact, for House Speaker Mike Johnson, it wasn't a rainbow. It was a mirage. He called it a joke.

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA):

The reason that we can't accept this ridiculousness, OK, is because we're not going to risk not funding the agencies that keep the American people safe. The Department of Homeland Security is the third largest department in the federal government. It has 10 agencies beneath it.

It's not just TSA. It's also FEMA, the Coast Guard, all these agencies that keep us safe. We must fund them. This is not a game.

Lisa Desjardins:

Now, what this is, is more complicated. Now, they want a deal to fund DHS for 60 days. But, of course, now, then the Senate would have to approve that. And, there, they need Democratic votes.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer already is defiant. He's saying, no, this is dead on arrival over there. So what we have right now is both chambers leaving for a two-week spring break. And that's why we think this shutdown very likely will just continue.

John Yang:

And where has President Trump been in all of this?

Lisa Desjardins:

Right.

I talked to a senior White House official who told me this quote, that he is trying to -- quote -- "let the Hill work this out." Now, the president did cast a little bit of shade on the Senate bill, but he basically seems to be staying out of it, saying he understands both sides.

That's a problem. He's not leading here, as we have Senate Republicans being more pragmatic, looking for something that can pass, and House Republicans being more righteous, looking for what they think is right in all of this. That divides also political risk for Republicans.

They say Democrats started this shutdown, but really they're the ones right now who can't seem to get on the same page.

John Yang:

So where are we now? And what's next? What can come next?

Lisa Desjardins:

OK, let's see us talk about this. First of all, DHS is the third largest agency in U.S. government. So, many workers, even with TSA being paid, are going to go again without pay. They've been with more than a month now without pay.

So the White House and the Senate heading toward this two-week break means this is a shutdown of historic proportions. Even though it is just a limited one, to one agency, here you see all the shutdowns since 1980. This is the last year's one there. You see the highest one, 43 days in yellow, the partial shutdowns, the current one, 40 days.

Now, let's see what happens if we go this two-week recess without any deal, which is where we are right now. Then we have the longest shutdown in American history. Even though it's one agency, it's a very large one. So what's next?

The House is on track to vote tonight on its plan. The Senate has left town. Usually, I like to give viewers a very clear sense of what is next, John, but, to be honest, no one knows. And what we know for workers, other than TSA and Coast Guard military, for DHS workers, many of them just don't know where their pay is going to come from or when.

John Yang:

Lisa Desjardins, thank you very much.

Lisa Desjardins:

You're welcome.