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Welcome to The Logoff: The DHS shutdown is inflicting chaos at airports, however Donald Trump has his personal set of priorities.
What’s occurring? Lawmakers are negotiating this week over a doable measure to fund a lot of the Division of Homeland Safety — however not ICE — earlier than a scheduled Easter recess beginning on Saturday. The continued DHS shutdown has meant that TSA employees are usually not getting paid, and a few are both quitting or calling out sick, leading to more and more lengthy safety strains at airports.
These talks are dealing with their very own difficulties — Sen. Angus King (I-ME) referred to as a GOP DHS proposal at present “illusory” — however President Donald Trump is throwing additional sand within the works along with his demand that lawmakers cross a invoice referred to as the SAVE America Act together with DHS funding.
“I feel any deal they make, I’m just about not pleased with it,” Trump mentioned on Tuesday about negotiations.
What would the SAVE America Act do? At its core, the invoice would introduce stringent new voter ID necessities, together with requiring proof of citizenship when registering to vote and cracking down on mail-in voting.
Extra not too long ago, Trump has additionally tried to graft unrelated new necessities onto the invoice; on Sunday, he posted, “All Paper Ballots, No Males In Girls’s Sports activities, and No Transgender MUTILIZATION of our valuable youngsters … lump every part collectively as one, and VOTE!!!”
Is that this going to occur? It’s not. Regardless of Trump’s calls for, the SAVE America Act has no clear path to passage within the Senate, whether or not or not it’s tagged onto a DHS funding measure (a model of the invoice already handed the Home final month).
Beneath strain from Trump, nevertheless, Republican senators have nonetheless been going by the motions of attempting to advance the invoice.
What does this imply for airport strains? For now, there’s no agreed-upon plan to reopen DHS, although one may materialize as senators stare down the prospect of lacking Easter recess. If that occurs, the following query will likely be whether or not Trump lets his SAVE America fixation get in the way in which.
And with that, it’s time to log out…
Right here’s a exceptional story from Vox’s Unexplainable podcast about environmental activist Casey Harrell. After being recognized with ALS in 2020, Harrell finally misplaced the flexibility to talk. Now, microelectrodes implanted in his mind are serving to him discuss as soon as extra.
Have an incredible night, and we’ll see you tomorrow!
