'You own this': Rep. McGovern targets Republicans as DHS funding standoff continues

The U.S. government's partial shutdown, now entering its seventh week, has caused significant disruptions to national travel. While an executive order by President Donald Trump will allow TSA workers to receive their paychecks, the political stalemate over Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding will continue for now. Last Friday, House Republicans rejected a bipartisan compromise that would partially fund the department and instead voted to approve a stopgap measure to fund the DHS in its entirety. The bill, now headed to the Senate, will face Democratic opposition as reforms on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP)keep lawmakers divided.

With the ongoing federal shutdown becoming the longest in history, Democratic Representative Jim McGovern slammed House Speaker Mike Johnson for deciding to "drag out" the impasse. The "solution was sitting right here," McGovern said. "Every delayed fight, every missed paycheck, every family under stress, every hour of avoidable pain. This is a Republican shutdown." Sharing a video of his speech, McGovern wrote, "Republicans could have easily ended the shutdown on Friday...Instead, he decided to drag it out longer." The Democratic Representative also reminded the House that the bill had cleared the Senate in a unanimous vote. "In the Senate, a unanimous vote. Every Republican Senator went along with it. Not a single one of them objected. Even the most conservative right-wing Senator did not object to it. And yet, that’s not enough for you," he said.

House Republicans had dismissed the Senate vote, with Speaker Johnson calling it "a joke." Representative Keith Self (R-TX) took to X to claim that the Senate "rushed" the bill in the "dead of the night" with only "five Senators present on the floor." "We can't believe that the Senate abdicated its responsibility this morning," Rep. Andy Harris said. "This deal is bad for America. It's bad for Americans. The president has already said he's going to fund TSA out of funds he has. So it's not going to affect the airports if we don't do this today."

Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina also echoed the same sentiments. "The Senate unanimously decided to give in to Democrat demands to not fund ICE or CBP," she said. "This surrender by Senate Republicans was passed in the middle of the night and then the entire Senate decided to go home for 2.5 weeks."