Congressional dysfunction imperils TSA, Secret Service pay

The Department of Homeland Security has been shut down for more than 70 days and with Congress seemingly at an impasse on a series of contentious topics, there’s no quick end to the funding lapse on the horizon.

As the House spun its wheels on Tuesday, some turned to a higher power. 

“I have a copy of the serenity prayer here,” said House Rules Committee Chair Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., kicking off a Tuesday afternoon hearing. “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, the wisdom to know the differences.”

The congressional to-do list is long. In addition to DHS funding, it includes thorny legislation like the reauthorization of a controversial foreign surveillance program that expires at the end of April, a bill that sets agricultural and food policies and a budget measure on Republican immigration priorities that some hope will pave the way to ending the partial government shutdown.

Congress, while rife with dysfunction, is in short supply of time. Both chambers are slated to take a weeklong break starting Friday. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in April that he said would authorize paying all DHS employees during the shutdown. But that emergency funding could dry up by May 1, according to Trump administration officials.

If it does, Transportation Security Administration agents could begin missing paychecks again, which at the start of the shutdown caused massive delays at airports across the country. It could also mean Secret Service agents, who stopped an alleged gunman at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner over the weekend, could soon go without pay, along with other DHS workers.

“The Senate has twice — twice — passed DHS funding unanimously, starting 33 days ago,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said at a press conference on Tuesday.

The Senate in late March approved a DHS bill that would have funded the agency except for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and parts of Customs and Border Protection, but the House spiked the proposal amid backlash from conservative within the conference.

“All [Speaker Mike] Johnson has to do is put it on the floor and it’ll pass. It’ll pass by a whole lot of votes. But right now, Republicans are blocking it,” Schumer said.

Just stuck

The finger pointing over DHS funding goes both ways.

Republicans have repeatedly taken shots at Democrats, who refused to fund DHS in February after two U.S. citizens were killed by federal agents in January during an immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. Most Democrats have continued to withhold their support from any legislation that would provide…