WASHINGTON — It’s a scene that raises eyebrows: while thousands of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees remain unpaid and security lines at airports stretch uncomfortably long, some members of Congress are indulging in leisure activities. Whether spotted at casinos, Disney World, or even on international trips, their actions stand in stark contrast to the dire situation faced by many federal workers.
Despite the ongoing government shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, both the House and Senate took a break last week for what is termed “work from district” time. This break occurred without any resolution in sight to end the impasse.
The crux of the deadlock lies in negotiations between Democrats and Republicans. Democrats have been leveraging funding for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and other critical Homeland Security agencies to push for restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). However, these discussions fell apart just prior to the recess.
Meanwhile, TSA agents, who typically earn around $46,000 annually, received some of their overdue wages on Monday, thanks only to an executive order issued by President Trump. Yet, many other DHS employees have not seen a paycheck since mid-February.
In a statement on Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt urged action, saying, “Congress needs to come back. Democrats need to fund the Department of Homeland Security.”
“Congress needs to come back,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday. “Democrats need to fund the Department of Homeland Security.”
On Sunday, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the powerful House Oversight Committee, was spotted at a casino bar in Fontainebleau Las Vegas in photos released by TMZ.
Garcia noted that his father has lived in Sin City for 15 years and attempted to shift the blame to GOP leadership for the shutdown.
“I try to see him whenever I can,” Garcia said of his father. “And like I said a few days ago, Speaker Mike Johnson should have never sent us all home.”
Lawmakers in the House and Senate get paid a minimum of $174,000 a year, depending on their role. Their constitutionally protected paychecks come through regardless of whether the government shuts down due to a congressional deadlock.
Over the weekend, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) posted a picture of himself posing next to late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel in Los Angeles — far away from his home state — while participating in a “No Kings” rally.
The Post contacted Murphy’s office for an explanation about why he was so far from Connecticut.
A bunch of Democrat-aligned lawmakers in Congress were seen at “No Kings” protests over the weekend, often posting photos of themselves at the rallies, including Sens. Murphy, Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), as well as Reps. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.), Grace Meng (D-NY), Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and more.
Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) was seen enjoying his grandson’s baseball game back in Georgia.
Since Congress adjourned, a delegation of four senators on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee touched down in Taipei for discussions about the US relations with Taiwan.
Additionally, just hours after the Senate adjourned, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was spotted at Disney World with a bubble wand. Graham claims he was there to visit friends after lunch with special envoy Steve Witkoff and others, “about the possibility of normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel.”
“I voted 7 times to fully fund the government,” Graham said in a statement. “Call a Democrat.”
Graham has numerous events planned in South Carolina this week.
Right now, there are no plans for either chamber of Congress to gavel back into session early. On Monday, the GOP didn’t attempt to wrangle any DHS funding bill through the Senate’s pro forma session.
The Senate had passed a bill to fund all of DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as Customs and Border Protection, in the wee Friday morning hours.
The House rejected that, and instead, passed a 60-day stopgap measure to keep all of DHS open through May 22.
President Trump took executive action last Friday to pay Transportation Security Administration workers, who last had a full paycheck on Feb. 14 when the funding lapse began.
The retroactive paychecks for TSA employees went out Monday to a majority of its workforce, according to a DHS spokesperson. Over 500 TSA workers have left the agency since the shutdown began.
But despite Trump’s executive order, thousands of federal workers in other DHS agencies still remain without paychecks, including support staff for ICE, CBP, Coast Guard, and more.
The current lapse has broken the prior 43-day record for a government shutdown that Congress set in the fall of last year.
“This is caused by Democrat terrorists. These people are sick,” Trump grumbled to reporters about Air Force One on Sunday.
“They don’t care about our country, they don’t care about people. But what it’s all about really is they want to have open borders, and they want to have criminals come into our country.”
