Republican leader defends Congress skipping town after House, Senate can't agree on shutdown deal

Source: The Independent

Sunday 29 March 2026 14:35 EDT


A senior Republican defended fellow House members who left Washington without voting on the Senate’s proposal to end the partial government shutdown on Friday. Rep. Steve Scalise, the House Majority Leader, told ABC’s This Week that he believed in the lower chamber’s strategy to pass a short-term funding package for DHS.

The House vote followed the Senate unanimously passing a bill that would fund the entirety of DHS minus enforcement and removal operations headed up by Immigration and Customs Enforcment (ICE) for the remainder of the fiscal year ending in September. Now, House members and senators alike are back home after departing D.C. on Thursday and Friday for a recess that will continue through the Easter holiday next weekend, virtually guaranteeing that DHS, including TSA, which operates security at the nation’s ports and airports, will go unfunded for another week.

“We sent a bill that was short term. It’s not exactly what we want, but at least it allows everybody to get paid, all the agencies, TSA, while we negotiate our differences. We have very big differences,” Scalise told ABC’s Jonathan Karl. Pressed on why Congress “flew the coop” while DHS remains unfunded — at a time when U.S. officials have warned about heightened security threats linked to the war in Iran — Scalise maintained that the House had stayed in session later than members had planned.

Co-anchor Johnathan Karl then pointed out that Republican leaders did not allow the Senate proposal to get a vote in the lower chamber. That’s despite President Donald Trump urging Republicans to remain on Capitol Hill to work through the recess on issues including DHS funding and the voter ID-focused Save America Act.

Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/steve-scalise-house-senate-shutdown-dhs-b2947954.html