Stop Holding Airport Security Hostage to Pass Voter Restrictions

Congress must act immediately to end the Department of Homeland Security funding crisis and restore pay to Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers. What is happening now is not just dysfunction—it is a deliberate political choice with real consequences for millions of Americans. For weeks, TSA agents have gone without pay. Many have taken loans, negotiated with landlords, and struggled to make ends meet. As the pressure mounted, sick-outs spread across major airports, with some locations seeing more than a third of officers call out. The result has been entirely predictable: hours-long security lines, missed flights, and growing risks to both efficiency and safety. This did not have to happen. A bipartisan agreement was within reach that would have funded DHS operations—including TSA—while setting aside disputes over immigration enforcement for separate debate. That proposal included meaningful guardrails, such as requiring immigration agents to wear identification, limiting enforcement in sensitive locations like hospitals and schools, and strengthening oversight. Even Republican senators acknowledged the deal would have worked and could have restored TSA pay quickly. Instead, it was rejected. The President has publicly urged lawmakers not to make any deal unless it includes passage of the SAVE America Act—a voting bill aimed at addressing fraud that is exceedingly rare. In other words, basic government funding is being used as leverage to force unrelated changes to voting law. What has followed is not a solution, but a workaround that risks making things worse. The emerging plan would fund most of DHS now while postponing decisions about immigration enforcement funding to a separate reconciliation bill. That process avoids the filibuster and opens the door to attaching unrelated provisions, including elements of the SAVE Act, to must-pass legislation. It allows lawmakers to claim progress today while deferring the most consequential decisions—and accountability—until later. Even more troubling, this approach does not resolve the underlying dispute. It risks entrenching current policies without meaningful reform while shifting the debate into a procedural channel with fewer safeguards. Meanwhile, the contradictions are stark. TSA workers remain unpaid while ICE—already funded through prior legislation—has been redeployed to airports to help manage congestion, despite not being trained for aviation security roles. That is not a substitute for a functioning, properly funded system. Congress must reject this approach. Fund DHS immediately and restore pay to TSA workers. Address immigration enforcement policy through a separate, transparent legislative process. Do not use reconciliation to bypass debate or attach unrelated voting restrictions to budget measures. And above all, do not hold essential government functions hostage to force political outcomes. Americans deserve a government that solves problems, not one that manufactures crises to gain leverage.