Senate Approves TSA Funding, Now the Fun Begins [View all]

Today on TAP: The measure financing most of the Department of Homeland Security has nothing constraining the actions of ICE. But to get ICE more funding, Republicans have a tall task.

by Robert Kuttner
March 27, 2026

Just after 2:20 Friday morning, the Senate voted by unanimous consent to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security, including TSA, for the remainder of this fiscal year through June. The funding excludes money for ICE and Customs and Border Protection. The measure then headed to the House for final passage.

Why did both parties suddenly take this deal? On the one hand, Democrats had introduced legislation that looked essentially like this since before the shutdown; why did Republicans finally agree? Meanwhile, there are no concessions on limiting ICE’s behavior, of the kind that Democrats have been demanding for weeks; why did Democrats allow that to happen?

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According to Senate Republican leader John Thune, who professed to be unhappy with today’s deal, the Senate will take up ICE and CBP funding later this year in a reconciliation bill, where passage would take only 50 votes. As my colleague David Dayen reported, that bill will be very difficult for Republicans to pass. Between Trump’s immigration Gestapo, as much as $200 billion for the ill-begotten war in Iran, and funding cuts to federal benefits (including more cuts to health care, disguised as “fraud prevention”), it’s likely to be one of the most unpopular bills in American history.

Add in the complication that House hard-liners—and Trump—are insistent on attaching his voter suppression tool called the SAVE Act, which isn’t budgetary and will likely get kicked out of reconciliation, and you have a complicated dance to get to an absolute majority in either chamber.
https://prospect.org/2026/03/27/tsa-gets-funding-congress-dhs-ice/