As the almost 50-day partial shutdown drags on, travelers have definitely found some creative coping mechanisms for their long waits at U.S. airports. In Houston, one man went viral for walking up and down the security line with a vodka bottle, pouring shots for annoyed adults. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson brought in live entertainment, a violinist who was supposed to ease some of the tension. “[A] violin playing like on the deck of the Titanic. Is it that bad?” one passenger joked. And in Baltimore, volunteers passed out “pick-me-up snacks.” Now that TSA workers are finally getting paid, Americans’ aggravation is starting to subside — just not where Congress is concerned.

What was a four-hour checkpoint in Houston had dwindled to just 10 minutes on Monday, PBS reported — a world of difference from the endless nightmare passengers were experiencing just 48 hours earlier. After weeks of maddening scenes across the country, there are signs that things may slowly be returning to normal. On Capitol Hill, though, there’s been no reprieve from the biggest standstill: Homeland Security funding. But that’s about to change.

While the president found a workaround for TSA agents, the two chambers have been logging long phone calls in search of a solution to turn the lights on across DHS. As Politico points out, “While about 50,000 airport security officers are now getting paid under Trump’s executive action, thousands more workers remain furloughed or working without pay. Those include more than 2,000 employees of the premier federal cybersecurity agency, more than 4,000 FEMA workers as well as more than 1,000 Coast Guard civilians.”

On Wednesday afternoon, the situation took a dramatic turn when the two GOP leaders — who were at odds on strategy before the Easter recess — released a joint statement agreeing to compromise on their differences. In it, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) both agreed to swallow pieces of the other chamber’s proposal in an effort to get all of Homeland Security funded.

“In the coming days, Republicans in the Senate and House will be following through on the President’s directive by fully funding the entire Department of Homeland Security on two parallel tracks: through the appropriations process and through the reconciliation process,” they explained. “We appreciate,” they continued, “that Senator [Lindsey] Graham (R-S.C.) and the Senate Budget Committee have already initiated the process of developing a budget resolution that will ensure border security and immigration enforcement will be funded for the balance of the Trump Administration and insulated from future attempts by the Democrats to defund those agencies.”

Translation: House Republicans will be pressured to accept the Senate’s proposal to partially fund Homeland Security in exchange for Thune’s help in passing another reconciliation bill (which would presumably finance ICE and Customs and Border Patrol). Of course, the advantage of reconciliation, that tricky budgetary process the GOP used to move the One Big Beautiful Bill, is that it lets conservatives bypass the Senate’s 60-vote threshold and get legislation over the finish line with a simple majority — an absolute necessity in the era of absurd Democratic obstruction.

Last Friday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) pushed hard to bring the Senate-passed proposal to the floor — to no avail. Wednesday afternoon, he reiterated that position, posting that it was “time to pay TSA agents, end the airport chaos and fully fund every part of the Department of Homeland Security that does not relate to Donald Trump’s violent mass deportation scheme.”

Assuming that position holds, the Democrats’ help will be crucial in getting the Senate bill over the hump in Johnson’s chamber, where some conservatives were already grumbling about the new, two-track plan. But even they must recognize the quandary leadership is in when Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) party is determined to put political messaging above American safety.

“We operated under a belief that while our country is in the midst of an international armed conflict, Democrats might finally come to their senses and understand that defunding our homeland security agencies is beyond reckless and very dangerous,” the two leaders pointed out. “[But] it is now abundantly clear that Democrats place allegiance to their radical left-wing base above all else — including their own power of the purse — which means open borders and protecting criminal illegal aliens. That is not acceptable to Republicans in Congress, nor is it to the American people. We cannot allow Democrats to any longer put the safety of the American public at risk through their open border policies, so we are taking that off the table.”

By early Thursday morning, the new plan was already moving. In its pro-forma session, the Senate sent its partial funding bill back to the House, where action will likely be taken early next week. Meanwhile, conservatives are bracing for the wild race toward reconciliation.

The challenge, most people agree, will be political discipline. There’s always a temptation for the party chasing reconciliation to throw every possible thing at the wall and see if it sticks. But this cannot be a catch-all, conservatives warn. “I would keep it as simple as possible so it could pass,” Johnson reiterated. While some Republicans will want to slip in Iran funding, pieces of the SAVE America Act, or other logjammed bills, an injection of too many priorities could “kill the whole thing,” one senator acknowledged anonymously.

“If you want to keep all of our members tight,” outgoing Senator Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) insisted, “… we need to agree to parameters and not allow scope creep.” The majority leader echoed the sentiment. “We’re just trying to make sure we keep our expectations realistic,” Thune said.

One advantage of the idea is that Republicans could fund all of DHS for multiple years — sparing them (and the country) this headache every time Homeland Security appropriations comes up. On that, both chambers agree. “We’re going to send [the House something] that actually funds DHS for the next three years. We’re not going through this again with the Dems, okay?” Senator John Hoeven (R-N.D.) emphasized.

Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) wonders if the House can find a sweet spot on reconciliation the second time around. “The reality is, we will be fine in the Senate,” he explained, recognizing that Thune can still lose three Republicans on reconciliation and still pass the bill. “The House is where we’re going to have the problem,” he cautioned on Tuesday’s “Washington Watch.” But we’re going to have people in swing districts [who] are going to have a real problem with it. The speaker knows that. We all know that, and we’re working hard to try to figure out a way forward.”

Singling out the perpetual thorn in Johnson’s side, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Hern acknowledged, “… There are a lot of reasons why we don’t have the full vote margins that we need. … And we know that we have one member [who’s] going to vote against everything that we do going forward. So we can’t lose any[one]. And that’s a very difficult situation when you’re trying to pass something as monumental as a second reconciliation bill.” Especially when the president throws down this timeline: “I am asking that the Bill be on my desk NO LATER than June 1st,” he posted Wednesday.

But the current situation isn’t just unsustainable, it’s historic. “Listen, not every single Democrat is against funding the security of our border and ICE,” Hern wanted people to know, “but the stranglehold by the Democrat[ic] leadership is making it such [that] if you vote to do the right thing for America, you’re a bad person. [And] I do think that it’s unprecedented.”

AUTHOR

Suzanne Bowdey

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2026 Family Research Council.

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