People wait in a TSA security line at Terminal A of Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) in Newark, N.J., U.S., Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

Senators are discussing a proposal to end the Homeland Security budget stalemate by funding much of the department, including Transportation Security Administration airport workers who are going without pay. The deal would exclude U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s removal operations, which have been core to the dispute.

As U.S. airports remain jammed with long lines due to short staffing at TSA, President Donald Trump ordered ICE officers to provide airport security, alarming some lawmakers.

DHS is now being overseen by Markwayne Mullin, whose nomination the Senate approved on Monday. Mullin has tried to present himself as a steady hand, saying his goal as secretary would be to get the department off the front page of the news.

Here’s the latest:

LaGuardia and JFK travelers still can’t see online wait times

Travelers headed to LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports in New York — as well as Newark Liberty International in neighboring New Jersey — still couldn’t check online TSA wait times Tuesday morning.

All three airports said this week that they had temporarily suspended the live security wait times they typically provide on their websites, due to “rapid” changes in passenger volumes and TSA staffing.

Beyond TSA waits, LaGuardia saw additional delays and cancellations after it temporarily shut down following Sunday night’s fatal collision between an Air Canada jet and a fire truck on the airport’s runway.

“Please allow for significantly more time and check with your airline for the current status of your flight,” the airport wrote on social media Monday.

TSA call-out rates climbed over the weekend

Nationwide on Sunday, 11.8% of TSA agents missed work — the highest rate of the shutdown so far — with over 3,450 officers calling out, according to DHS. More than 400 officers have quit during the shutdown, the department said.

Some have accused the government of using TSA workers as pawns in the ongoing budget fight. And aviation unions have raised additional safety concerns in light of the Trump administration’s deployment of ICE officers.

What’s being floated in the current DHS funding proposal?

ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations would be funded, as well as Customs and Border Protection — but with new guardrails to position officers from those divisions in their traditional roles, rather than as they have been used more recently in immigration roundups.

It would also include immigration operations changes that Democrats have demanded, including mandating officers to wear body cameras and identification.

Since so much of ICE is already funded through Trump’s big tax breaks bill, and immigration officers are still receiving paychecks during the partial government shutdown, senators said the new restraints also would be imposed on operations that rely on that funding source.