House Republicans shoot down invoice that will pay federal airport employees | Donald Trump News | USAEMALL.com

White House memo says Trump has instructed DHS to pay federal airport workers as long lines snarl travel.

Republican leaders in the United States House of Representatives have shot down a bill passed by the Senate that would have resumed funding for federal agencies tasked with airport screenings, continuing a standoff that has resulted in chaos at airports as workers go without pay.

In the early hours of Friday morning, the Senate unanimously passed a bill that would finance most of agencies under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the US Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

But that bill withheld funding from two branches related to President Donald Trump’s hardline crackdown on immigration: border patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

By Friday afternoon, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed he would not bring the Senate-passed bill to the floor for a vote and slammed the legislation as a “joke”.

“We’re going to do something different,” Johnson said, suggesting that the House could advance its own bill fully funding all DHS agencies for two months.

Separately, President Donald Trump signed an executive memo directing DHS to work with the White House budget director to find a way to pay TSA employees.

TSA security agents have gone without pay since the partial government shutdown began in mid-February, leading many to quit or refuse to show up for work at airports across the country.

“America’s air travel system has reached its breaking point. This is an unprecedented emergency situation,” Trump wrote in the memo, blaming the impasse on Democrats.

He estimated that nearly 500 TSA security agents have left their jobs since the partial shutdown began.

Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, have slammed Republicans for rejecting bills that would ensure that TSA employees are paid while continuing to withhold additional funds from immigration enforcement.

A tax-and-spending bill last July earmarked nearly $170bn for immigration and border operations, in addition to normal spending for ICE and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP).

Since January, Democrats have hinged further funding for immigration efforts on the implementation of reforms, including an end to racial profiling and the clear identification of immigration agents while on duty.

“We’ve been clear from day one: Democrats will fund critical homeland security functions — but we will not give a blank check to Trump’s lawless and deadly immigration militia without reforms,” Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.

Schumer added that the House bill pushed by Johnson, which has yet to pass, would be “dead on arrival” in the Senate.

Federal immigration agencies have been the subject of widespread public anger amid a campaign of aggressive immigration raids. Rights groups have accused the Trump administration of employing violence and systematically violating civil liberties in its push for mass deportation.

Tensions peaked in January when two US citizens, Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, were shot and killed by federal agents in separate incidents during immigration raids in the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The Trump administration sparked additional outcry after initially describing Good and Pretti as domestic terrorists, even when video footage of the incidents contradicted the government’s depiction of events.