Felix Engine

BREAKING: Acting TSA Administrator Ms. Ha Nguyen McNeill testifies before Congress that TSA is currently suffering the longest wait times in agency history, with callout rates hitting 40-50% at some airports and more than 480 employees quitting since the shutdown began. McNeil testifies that TSA has been shut down for half of fiscal year 2026, and $1 billion in TSA paychecks will be missed if the shutdown isn't ended by Friday. She testified that to make ends meet, TSA officers have been selling blood and plasma and sleeping in their cars. Some have received eviction notices, missed bill payments and accrued late fees, damaged their credit, and have defaulted on loans, but are “still expected to perform at the highest level”.

Susan Collins isn’t voting for ICE reconciliation funding in a Maine election year. Murkowski isn’t because she’s a Democrat. McConnell isn’t because f**k you that’s why. Ditto Tillis. So best case scenario is you have 49 republicans willing to pass the reconciliation bill.

The DHS deal under consideration would fund all of DHS except for ICE's deportation wing, known as ERO (Enforcement & Removal Operations). Those are the frontline ICE agents you see. ICE has two major branches, ERO and HSI (Homeland Security Investigations). HSI typically focuses on human trafficking, sex trafficking, human smuggling etc. though the Trump administration has been using them for immigration enforcement as well. It sounds like HSI would be funded under this deal, but ERO would not. (ERO is funded with OBBB money through 2029, but their civilian support staff are not.) Democrats would not get the major reforms they had been demanding (unmasking, judicial warrants, etc) as part of this deal. Thoughts?