TSA Agents Start Getting Paid

The partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) became the longest in U.S. history on March 29.

TSA agents, however, will start receiving their paychecks from today, after President Donald Trump signed an order on Friday.

The shutdown has caused extremely long lines at airports, as many Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents—who have not received a check since mid-February—have not shown up at work.

White House border czar Tom Homan said that ICE agents will continue working at airports until TSA returns to normal operations.

Nearly 500 TSA agents have quit since the shutdown started because they were not able to pay for costs such as gas, groceries, or their mortgages, the DHS said.

The DHS shutdown reached its 44th day on Sunday, breaking the record set during the U.S. government shutdown in the fall of 2025. Democrats have refused to advance funding for the agency until reforms are made to the DHS subsidiary Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 

Republican and Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill have blamed one another for the standstill while tossing a dizzying array of proposals through the halls of Congress that have not successfully moved forward.

On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) gave Democrats a “last and final” offer to end the standstill. 

“Enough is enough,” Thune said, reflecting the mood of both sides on Capitol Hill amid the drawn-out shutdown, particularly as it has begun to show visible impacts in areas like air travel. 

The next day, Senate Democrats agreed to pass a measure that funds the entire government aside from ICE and some components of Customs and Border Protection. These operations are already funded by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and ICE has continued to operate amidst the shutdown. 

Republicans criticized Democrats for not advancing their DHS spending bills, as Democrats said they will not approve the funding bills until they are guaranteed to see an overhaul in how immigration operations are handled.

“We’ve been trying for weeks to fund the whole thing,” Thune said. “And, I mean, in the end, this is what they were willing to agree to. But again, it’s different that it has zero reforms in it. I mean, they got no reforms on DHS, which they could have had if they had been willing to work with us a little bit on that.”

Democrats’ core demands have included body cameras, ending the use of administrative warrants—warrants issued by the executive branch to itself, as opposed to a judicial warrant from a judge—stronger identification requirements, and an end to the practice of wearing masks while on duty.

Despite the absence of immigration enforcement reform provisions—unpopular with the lower chamber’s most conservative members—House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) quickly rejected the proposal. 

“This gambit that was done last night is a joke. I’m quite convinced that it can’t be that every Senate Republican read the language of this bill,” he told reporters.

“We’re not doing that,” he added.

The House, instead, passed a stopgap plan to fund the DHS for 60 days on March 27 with a 213–203 vote.

The bill was sent to the Senate, which just went on a two-week recess.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) has urged his colleagues to return to Washington and end the DHS shutdown.

“If you don’t want to fight fires, don’t become a firefighter,” Lee said during an interview on Fox News.

“If you don’t want to take grueling votes at difficult hours and sometimes have to work longer than you want to, maybe you shouldn’t become a United States senator.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he would not support the House’s bill that passed on the night of March 27.

“A 60-day [continuing resolution] that locks in the status quo is dead on arrival in the Senate, and Republicans know it,” Schumer wrote in an X post.

“We’ve been clear from day one: Democrats will fund critical Homeland Security functions—but we will not give a blank check to [President Donald] Trump’s lawless and deadly immigration militia without reforms.”

—Jacki Thrapp, Joseph Lord, and Jackson Richman

BOOKMARKS

High prices and shrinking families threaten multigenerational farms in Indiana, leading to fears of continuing flight away from the family profession. But despite this, The Epoch Times’ Bruce Parker reported, two young farmers believe their children will find success in the industry.

Pakistan said it is preparing to host and facilitate de-escalation talks between the United States and Iran, The Epoch Times’ Jacki Thrapp reported. It comes after foreign ministers of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt met in Islamabad on March 29 to discuss how to end the conflict in the Middle East. “Pakistan is very happy that both Iran and the US have expressed their confidence in Pakistan to facilitate the talks,” Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar said. 

Record-high gold prices hovering at about $5,000 per ounce have triggered a renewed interest in prospecting and mining and what could be the start of a mini gold rush in the California Mother Lode, The Epoch Times’ Brad Jones reported. The surge has not only inspired seasoned miners but is also drawing newcomers who want to learn how to find gold.

Food stamp recipients in Florida, Texas, and West Virginia will face restrictions on buying certain kinds of less nutritious items such as soda and candy, some starting in April, The Epoch Times’ Tom Gantert reported. The SNAP program had 40.7 million people participating nationwide at a monthly cost of $7.97 billion as of November 2025.