U.S. Congressman Scott Peters (D-CA) has proposed a bill to pay TSA workers while the partial government shutdown continues. As unpaid TSA workers increasingly fail to report for work and airport lines increasingly become a major pain point for U.S. travelers, Peters wants to alleviate that pain point — and others, like the pause in FEMA liquidity — while preserving the ability to debate DHS funding and operations at ICE and Border Patrol.
NOTE: Democrats are insisting on structural changes to ICE and Border Patrol operations before agreeing to some funding of DHS, which houses both ICE and TSA.
Peters writes: “I have a bill to pay TSA workers, Coast Guard and emergency management without adding more to ICE and Border Patrol. Easy, right? But Trump won’t allow it.”
We should pass Scott’s bill. Pay TSA. Do not pay ICE. https://t.co/0HLgno8hYJ
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) March 22, 2026
Responding to a share of Peters’ post by Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), the gubernatorial candidate who urged passing of the measure, many MAGA commenters are refuting Peters with the assertion that ICE is funded through 2029. NOTE: ICE funding is part of the debate, though Democrats are also focused on securing operational protocol changes at ICE and Border Patrol, requiring badges, more training, removal of masks, and other measures for officers in the aftermath of the killing of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota by American law enforcement.
TSA agents, considered essential as are about 90% of DHS workers, are required to work even without pay and are guaranteed back pay when the shutdown is over. Yet the situation on the ground at airports shows that TSA agents aren’t meeting that requirement.
“There are approximately 420,000 federal employees, deemed ‘essential,’ including FBI agents, DEA agents, Secret Service agents, and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, who are being required to work without pay” during the shutdown, according to Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), who refers to the impasse as the “Trump shutdown.”
[NOTE: In the post below about securing federal funds for local policing that he is pro-law enforcement, Panetta pitches his bona fides as pro-law enforcement politician who pursues funding that “will allow the police department to increase its officers and support staff to best do the job they have sworn to do.”]
I am proud to have secured federal funding for the Atascadero police department. This federal investment will allow the police department to increase its officers and support staff to best do the job they have sworn to do. https://t.co/Z3KXfdlQ3r
— Rep. Jimmy Panetta (@RepJimmyPanetta) March 22, 2026
Trump, whom Peters references in his post about funding TSA, has linked the shutdown to the passage of the SAVE Act, a voter ID measure that doesn’t have enough support currently to pass without the nuclear option to override the need for a three-fifths majority, according to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD). Thune does not want to go nuclear.
“I don’t think we should make any deal with the Crazy, Country Destroying, Radical Left Democrats unless, and until, they Vote with Republicans to pass ‘THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,’” Trump wrote in a post.