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Republicans in the US House of Representatives have rejected a bipartisan deal to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), amid chaos at airports.
All Republicans and three Democrats, moderate Reps Don Davis of North Carolina, Marie Gluesenkamp Peres of Washington and Henry Cuellar of Texas, voted in favour of a temporary extension of all DHS funding through May 22, including immigration enforcement.
Their peers in the Senate supported the bill that would have reopened most of DHS but excluded funding for immigration agencies.
House Republican leaders rejected the bill, with Speaker Mike Johnson labelling the Senate bill a "joke".
TSA agents, who manage US airport security, have not been paid in more than a month due to the impasse. Congress is now heading on a two-week break through April 13 with no imminent plans to reconvene.
House Republicans are demanding that the legislation include money for immigration enforcement, and their plan would mean funding DHS, including funding for ICE, for 60 days.
President Trump signed an order directing his administration to pay hundreds of airport security agents. The DHS posted on X late on Friday, which read, "TSA officers should begin seeing paychecks as early as Monday, March 30."
The move may be met with legal and political challenges, as the US Constitution tasks Congress with authorising spending for the federal government.
There has been widespread disruption at airports across the US, where travellers have faced hours-long queues due to a shortage of TSA officers at security checkpoints.
Around 50,000 agents with the TSA have been working without pay since mid-February. This has reduced the number turning up to work each day and led to hundreds quitting.
Moreover, Democrats want any deal on DHS funding to include measures like an end to ICE agents wearing masks, a ban on racial profiling and a requirement for judicial warrants to be issued before agents can enter private property.
