- Congress is under mounting pressure to end the partial government shutdown that has led to mass travel disruptions, missed paychecks for TSA workers, and warnings of potential airport closures.
- The core issue behind the stalemate is the disagreement over reining in President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement operations.
- A Republican proposal to fund TSA and most of the Department of Homeland Security, excluding Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE operations, is anticipated to fail in the Senate Thursday. Democrats say the Republican plan does not go far enough in controlling federal officers involved in immigration sweeps.
- Congress is set to leave town by week's end for spring break recess as calls intensify for an end to the 41-day stalemate that's put the livelihoods of TSA officers at risk as they provide airport security without pay.
- “This is a dire situation,” acting TSA administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill said at a House hearing Wednesday. “At this point, we have to look at all options on the table and that does require us to, at some point, make very difficult choices as to which airports we might try to keep open and which ones we might have to shut down as our callout rates increase.”
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