Republican lawmakers are accusing their Democratic counterparts of “undermining” national security and emergency preparedness amid the partial government shutdown that has left the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) unfunded for more than a week.
The lapse in federal funding – the third in the last three months – is affecting the Secret Service, Transportation Safety Administration (TSA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and several other DHS components while at the same time preparations are underway for President Trump’s State of the Union address and the northeast reels from a blizzard that dropped more than two-and-a-half feet of snow.
“As another bout of extreme winter weather hits the Northeast, FEMA and TSA personnel are once again facing uncertain pay due to a Democrat shutdown,” read a post from the GOP-controlled House Homeland Security Committee on Monday.
“Frontline DHS personnel deserve the stability of a full-year funding bill,” the post continued. “Instead, Democrats are undermining our nation’s transportation security and emergency preparedness for the second time in six months.”
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) argued that Democrats’ decision to put “670K federal workers on furlough right now” as they fight with Republicans over Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) policies will backfire on the party.
“TSA, CISA, Coast Guard, FEMA & Secret Service employees are working without pay,” Bacon recently wrote on X. “Schumer & Jeffries demanded this to target ICE, which is already funded.
“Holding innocent folks hostage is bad policy & bad politics.”
Similarly, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem asserted that “shutdowns have real world consequences,” in a statement on Sunday, “not just for the men and women of DHS and their families who go without a paycheck, but it endangers our national security.”
Federal funding for DHS lapsed on Feb. 14 after Congress failed to come to an agreement on a long-term spending bill for the department.
However, the agencies handling Trump’s immigration crackdown – ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) – remain funded through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
‘Dangerous work’ being done without pay
After Secret Service agents shot and killed a shotgun-wielding intruder at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., over the weekend, Republicans have expressed concern that members of Trump’s protective detail are not getting paid amid the shutdown.
A spokesperson for the Secret Service indicated that is currently not the case.
“No Secret Service agents or officers will miss a paycheck thanks to this Administration’s historic efforts on One Big Beautiful Bill,” the spokesperson told The Post.
“The Secret Service is not funded because Democrats are not funding the Department of Homeland Security,” Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) fumed during an appearance on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“So those Secret Service agents that are on the ground working, their agency, their department is not funded right now, putting them at risk of not being paid to do their always inherently dangerous work,” Mast added.
Larry Elder, a conservative talk show host and former GOP presidential candidate, argued “there would be riots in the streets had there been an assassination attempt against President Obama during a Republican government shutdown forcing Secret Service agents to work without pay.”
It’s unclear if Secret Service may be at risk of missing paycheck in the event of a prolonged shutdown.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called it “shameful and reckless that Democrats have chosen to shut down” DHS.
“Federal law enforcement are working 24/7 to keep our country safe and protect all Americans,” Leavitt wrote on X, in response to the Mar-a-Lago intrusion.
Stephen Miller, one of Trump’s top homeland security adviser, noted that “functions that support Secret Service” are currently unfunded as well.
“Democrats voted to defund Secret Service, Homeland Security Investigations (who partner with Secret Service) and all the intelligence and law enforcement functions that support Secret Service,” Miller wrote on X. “Never before in history has federal law enforcement been purposefully defunded.”
Will the shutdown affect the State of the Union?
DHS oversees both the Secret Service, which will provide the agents protecting Trump for the event, as well as FEMA’s Office of National Continuity Programs (ONCP), which is responsible for ensuring the government can continue to run in the event of a catastrophe.
The ONCP is reportedly “significantly constrained” as a result of the shutdown, according to the Washington Post.
“If a national emergency were to occur during a lapse in appropriations, the nation’s continuity posture would be at a heightened risk,” read an email, obtained by the outlet, that was sent to the head of the FEMA subagency on Sunday.
DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin, however, maintained that “operations for the State of the Union Address remain unaffected.”
“While non-essential training travel is paused, FEMA continues to authorize all travel necessary for national security,” she said in a statement.
Who else is cash-strapped?
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a DHS component that protects US critical infrastructure from physical and cyber threats, is also impacted by the shutdown.
“When the government shuts down, our adversaries do not,” CISA’s acting director Madhu Gottumukkala warned lawmakers on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security earlier this month.
Gottumukkala said lapsed funding would “impede CISA’s ability to perform … good work” and delay the deployment of services and capabilities to federal agencies, “leaving significant gaps in security programs.”
Meanwhile, FEMA and TSA both entered “emergency operating status,” on Sunday, with FEMA “scaling back to bare-minimum, life-saving operations only” and TSA suspending “nonessential privileges and courtesies,” such as escorting members of Congress to their airport gates.
TSA airport security screeners won’t miss their first paychecks until mid-March, according to Politico.
Some 41,000 members of the US Coast Guard could miss paychecks later this week, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) and other lawmakers warned last week.
“[M]ore than 41,000 active duty and activated Reserve Coast Guard members face the very real possibility of missing their next scheduled payday on February 27 if the Department of Homeland Security does not receive appropriations,” Malliotakis and 12 other congressional lawmakers in districts with a significant US Coast Guard presence wrote in a letter to Trump, urging the president to intervene to make sure the military branch can pay service members.
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