Nearly 500 airport security staff quit as DHS shutdown drags on with no end in sight – US politics live

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There was no breakthrough in talk to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Wednesday as the shutdown extends to almost six weeks with no end in sight.

Democratic lawmakers demanded new restrictions on federal agents carrying out the president’s deportation crackdown. But Republicans rejected the proposal, offering instead to remove money for immigration enforcement from the homeland security spending bill.

The Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, quickly shot down the offer, and said Democrats had countered with a measure that coupled DHS funding with a host of new guardrails on immigration enforcement operations – something the party has insisted on for months.

But that gained no traction with the GOP. “Get serious, folks,” the Senate majority leader, John Thune, said, in response to the Democrats’ counteroffer.

The funding lapse has led to lengthy lines at Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoints at some major airports, including including Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta international airport and George Bush intercontinental airport in Houston, prompting the president to this week deploy ICE agents in a bid to relieve congestion.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed yesterday that nearly 500 TSA officers have quit since what she called “the Democrat shutdown” began.“This is a dire situation,” the acting TSA administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill testified at a House hearing Wednesday.

The standoff seems likely to prolong the partial government shutdown, which began in mid-February after Democrats refused to approve funding for the department overseeing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), border patrol and other agencies involved in Donald Trump’s mass deportation push, without reforms demanded in response to the deaths of two US citizens in Minneapolis at the hands of federal agents.

Meanwhile, Schumer has sought to place the blame on Republicans for the travel chaos, saying its most recent proposal disrupted talks that had been nearing a compromise.

“We thought there had been some progress. Then Republicans sent us their offer yesterday, and it contained none of what we talked about, none of the reforms we had been discussing,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.

“So if anyone is slowing down negotiation and hurting TSA workers, it is the Republican leadership, who did not include one single reform.”

Read our full story here:Democrats shut down DHS funding deal from Republicans as standoff continuesRead moreIn other developments: The acting head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said on Wednesday that airports across the country are experiencing the “highest wait times in TSA history”, as the partial shutdown of the DHS enters its sixth week. At a House homeland security committee hearing, Ha Nguyen McNeill said her agency has been shut down for 50% of the fiscal year so far – a stretch that includes last year’s record-breaking 43‑day lapse in federal funding. She told lawmakers that by Friday, TSA employees will have missed $1bn in paychecks as a result of the closures.

More here. The US has launched another strike on a vessel in the Caribbean, killing four people, the US Southern Command said. The command, which oversees combatant operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, announced on X that it had conducted a “lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations”.

More here. Progressive lawmakers have unveiled a new policy to place a moratorium on the construction of AI datacenters. The policy, announced by Bernie Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democratic representative, aims to ensure the AI boom protects the environment and communities, and benefits workers instead of harming them.

More here. The Trump administration’s federal housing director Bill Pulte is asking prosecutors to investigate New York attorney general Letitia James for insurance fraud, according to criminal referrals reported by MS Now and CBS News. The referrals to prosecutors in Florida and Illinois allege that James may have committed mortgage insurance fraud.

The allegations center on applications made to Universal Property Insurance company, which is based in Florida, and Allstate in Illinois. More here. Key events39m agoTrump attacks Chuck Schumer over voter ID act standoff1h agoUS-Iran indirect talks 'taking place', says Pakistan, as Israel says it killed Iran naval chief2h agoTrump to hold first cabinet meeting since start of Iran war at 10am ET2h agoVenezuela's Maduro due back in US court in dispute over legal fees2h ago

DHS shutdown extends to almost six weeks with no end in sight and delays at airportsBill Maher, who has been a frequent thorn in Donald Trump’s side, is to be awarded a prestigious prize for comedy by the Kennedy Center – an institution the president has gone to great lengths to take over.

Despite earlier White House denials, Maher will he awarded the center’s Mark Twain humor prize, Politico confirms.

The confirmation comes just days after Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, and Steven Cheung, the communications director, dismissed initial reports of the award in the Atlantic as “fake news.”

Now it turns out that Maher is indeed to be the recipient of the award in a ceremony broadcast by Netflix that is scheduled to be one of the last public events hosted by the Kennedy Center before it shuts down for a two-year renovation.

A Kennedy Center spokesperson told Politico that the Atlantic story had been published before “conversations were finalized.”

Previous recipients include David Letterman, Adam Sandler and Conan O’Brien.

In response, Maher said: “I’d just like to say that it is indeed humbling to get anything named for a man who’s been thrown out of as many school libraries as Mark Twain.”

Trump last year hosted Maher to dinner at the White House but more recently denounced him as “a highly overrated lightweight” and a “jerk.”

Donald Trump has been “truthing” on his Truth Social platform early today, urging Republicans to terminate the Senate filibuster in his quest to have the Save America Act mandating tough voter ID enacted into law.

Two posts contain a barely veiled warning to Republicans against compromising with the Democratic Senate leader, Chuck Schumer, over funding the Department of Homeland Security, which has been partially shuttered in a dispute over immigration patrols – leading to disrupted security services and delays at airports.

Schumer has signalled in recent days that Democrats are open to a deal but Trump has said he will be unhappy with any compromise.

Instead, he wants Republicans to press ahead and abolish the filibuster, which decrees a 60-vote threshold for any new legislation.“When is ‘enough, enough’ for our Republican Senators,” he wrote in a screed posted at 6.51am ET. “There comes a time when you must do what should have been done a long time ago, and something which the Lunatic Democrats will do on day one, if they ever get the chance.

Terminate The Filibuster

, and get our airports, and everything else, moving again.

Also, add the complete, all five items,

Save America Act

items. Go for the Gold!!!