Trump expected to announce action to solve TSA problems amid DHS shutdown

Senate Republicans expect President Trump to announce an executive action Thursday afternoon to solve the shutdown of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which has caused long security lines and chaos at airports around the country.

A growing number of Republicans view the shutdown of TSA, which has now lasted for 41 days, as a political liability for the GOP as the party in control of government and they don’t see any sign that Democrats are prepared to accept a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security, despite several major concessions from White House negotiators.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said on Thursday that he’s holding off on offering a bill on the Senate floor to pay TSA workers during the partial government shutdown because he expects Trump to make a major announcement Thursday afternoon.

“If the Democrats do not accept our latest offer, I would not faint with surprise if you heard from the President of the United States with his thoughts this afternoon,” Kennedy told reporters.

Kennedy said he doesn’t see any chance of Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) accepting a deal to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

“There is no way in God’s green earth that Sen. Schumer is going to sign off anything that is construed as helping ICE. He’s not,” Kennedy. “We need to stop looking reality in the eye and denying it.”

Kennedy said he was prepared to go to the floor Thursday offer to get TSA open while Republicans work on a bill to pass under the budget reconciliation process to fund the Homeland Security Department.

But the Louisiana Republican expects a major announcement from Trump later in the day that will solve the TSA shutdown.

“I was prepared to go this afternoon to the floor and just offer a bill to just get TSA open while we finish reconciliation. I’m going to hold up on that now because if the Democrats reject our latest offer … I expect my bill not to be necessary because of actions that may or not be taken by the White House,” Kennedy said.

Trump warned at a Cabinet meeting Thursday morning that he is prepared to take “very drastic measures” to end the shutdown, which has caused huge delays at airports in Houston, Atlanta, New York, New Orleans and other major cities.

“They need to end the shutdown immediately, or we’ll have to take some very drastic measures,” Trump said at the White House.

Democrats voted for a seventh time Thursday evening to block a House-passed bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security through September.

Centrist Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) was the only Democrat to vote to advance the measure.

Democrats say the two sides are trading proposals to end the shutdown but they say negotiators are still far off from reaching a deal.

“I think it’s a good sign that there is paper that is going back and forth. I think there’s a lot of sense of urgency around getting TSA funded but frankly we’re not that far from where we’ve been for weeks, which is Democrat want real reforms to ICE and CBP and are resistant to funding them without reforms,” said Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.

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