Congress

Airports become political battlegrounds as DHS shutdown drags on

Published

6 months ago

March 26, 2026

The six-week-old Department of Homeland Security shutdown is hinging not only on what lawmakers do in the Capitol, but on how they get there.

Members of Congress are some of America’s most frequent fliers, giving them an up-close look at the shutdown’s most dramatic impacts on Americans — the long airport security lines caused by TSA staffing shortages.

The juxtaposition of the elected jet-setters, who can take advantage of some unusual perks as they travel, with growing disruptions for everyday travelers has emerged as the most potent point of pressure as the standoff wears on.

“Generally, when elected officials have to suffer the consequences of their own inaction, it tends to provide a motive for action,” Rep. Kevin Kiley, a California independent, said Thursday.

President Donald Trump announced Thursday evening he would sign an executive order to pay TSA agents, but as prospects for a shutdown-ending deal ebbed and flowed in recent weeks, airports became politically fraught spaces for members.

Many have made clear they are waiting in lines alongside everyone else, some have proposed legislation to enshrine that principle and at least one partisan confrontation has taken place on airport property.

In a viral blow-up last week outside the airport in Austin, Texas, Democratic Rep. Greg Casar crashed an event where GOP Sen. John Cornyn was handing out hamburgers to TSA agents missing paychecks amid the funding lapse. Casar blasted Cornyn for opposing legislation that would fund TSA without providing funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“My experience at the airport speaking with TSA agents is that several that I’ve spoken with just want to see us pass a TSA-only bill and have our debate about ICE separately,” Casar said in an interview.

Cornyn then introduced legislation to end “special treatment” for members of Congress at airports by requiring that lawmakers use the same screening procedures as other travelers and banning federal funds from being used to give members expedited security screenings. The legislation passed the Senate unanimously but has not been taken up in the House.

“As many Americans probably don’t know … airports around the country allow Members of Congress to bypass the usual TSA security screening process at airports,” Cornyn said in a statement. “This should end today.”

The special security arrangements are just some of the air-travel privileges that lawmakers can enjoy. Lawmakers have been known to skip to the front of screening lines, and many take advantage of special security escorts as they move through airports.

Major airlines offer special reservation booking privileges to members of Congress and their staff, giving them direct lines with dedicated personnel devoted to handling the needs of 535 congressional offices. Some allow members to book multiple flights on the same day without penalty, giving them options in case a vote runs late or another delay arises.

Delta, the largest U.S. carrier, said Tuesday it was suspending airport escorts for lawmakers and assistance from special “red coat” agents in light of the ongoing shutdown. The airline’s dedicated “Capital Desk” reservations line remains open.

Even before the shutdown, airports have been political hazards for members of Congress. Most infamously, former Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested in a 2007 bathroom sex sting inside the Minneapolis airport, effectively ending his career. Former Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) and Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) were both cited after trying to bring firearms through security checkpoints.

More recently, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) sparked a political firestorm after she was alleged to have verbally abused Charleston, South Carolina, airport workers in October after a mix-up involving her security escort. The widely publicized incident was seen as harming her campaign for governor.

The notion of lawmakers getting special air travel perks has gone viral in several instances in recent days as airport security lines have grown.

Proclaiming her support for Cornyn’s measure Thursday, Rep. Ashley Hinson of Iowa reposted a video showing old, pre-shutdown videos of Mace and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) being escorted through airports.

“Neither Republicans or Democrats should be skipping the line while constituents are facing 4+ hour waits across the country,” she said.

Virtually all of the more than 20 lawmakers Blue Light News interviewed Thursday about the airport chaos expressed sympathy for the unpaid agents, and many took pains to emphasize they had been inconvenienced alongside everyone else.

“My staff has been crushed. I got crushed a couple times. I got caught in the mess,” said Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.), who frequently flies out of Atlanta, America’s busiest airport. “First time I walked in, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, pandemonium.’”

Utah Republican Rep. Burgess Owens, who flies out of Salt Lake City, another Delta hub, said in an interview he does not use any special airline offerings for lawmakers and said he was glad those services are paused.

“Across the board, we should be living the same experience and pain that we give to other people,” he said.

“I don’t think we deserve any special perks,” added Rep. Nikki Budzinski (D-Ill.), who said the priority should be “making sure our constituents … can get through the line.”

There is, however, another point of bipartisan consensus — that the airport chaos is the other party’s fault.

“Democrats have proposed that we fund [TSA] fully,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said, referring to bills that would provide standalone funding for the agency. “Trump just refuses to take the deal.”

Speaker Mike Johnson made the opposite case in a Fox News interview Thursday afternoon.

“If you’re waiting in line at the airport, it’s because Democrats are refusing to fund the government,” he said.

Oriana Pawlyk contributed to this report.

Congress

Trump nominates Wesley Hunt as US ambassador to Saudi Arabia

Published

2 hours ago

September 14, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump nominated Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas) to be the next U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia on Monday, part of a spate of nominations sent to the Senate less than two months before the midterms decides the fate of the GOP’s control of the chamber.

Hunt, one of the first Black Republicans to represent Texas in the House, was one of three Republican candidates locked in a fierce battle for a Senate seat in Texas earlier this year.

Trump held off on endorsing a candidate in the initial primary but backed state Attorney General Ken Paxton in the runoff. Hunt pitched himself as a staunch Trump ally in that race and quickly endorsed Paxton — the eventual winner — once Trump signaled his favorite.

The ambassadorship was last held by Michael Ratney, who was nominated by former President Joe Biden and served in the position until January 2025.

Trump has long made relations with Saudi Arabia a priority, welcoming Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the White House in 2025 and striking deals with the kingdom. But the nomination comes as tensions between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-backed Houthis has reignited and the war in Iran has caused disruptions in its ability to export oil.

The other 40 nominations sent Monday to the Senate include some that Trump had previously announced on social media, including Heidi Overton as the next commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and Hung Cao as the next Navy secretary.

Congress

Hakeem Jeffries: Congress must act ‘immediately’ to rein in AI

Published

2 hours ago

September 14, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called Monday for immediate congressional action to regulate artificial intelligence — his most urgent call to date for guardrails on the rapidly advancing technology amid warnings it could eradicate humanity if left unchecked.

“The explosive growth of artificial intelligence and the challenges that are therein presented — that’s not a hoax,” Jeffries said at his weekly news conference. “It’s very real, despite what Donald Trump has to say about that issue as well, and it requires decisive congressional action immediately, in a manner consistent with what some of the leading AI voices in the country are now saying needs to happen, as it relates to slowing things down to protect the health, the safety and the well-being of the American people.”

Jeffries’ call for regulation comes days after an ex-Anthropic researcher, Jacob Coxon, warned that AI could “kill us all,” prompting calls from the company’s CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and xAI CEO Elon Musk for an AI development slowdown. Trump has responded by downplaying the risks and doubling down in his support for accelerating AI breakthroughs to compete with China.

Jeffries urged Speaker Mike Johnson Monday to keep Congress in session “until something is done decisively to protect the safety and the well-being of the American people, in the face of growing concerns being raised by experts within the artificial intelligence industry itself.”

Johnson canceled the last two weeks of session before the midterms, meaning that the House is slated to leave Capitol Hill on Thursday and not return until Nov. 9. The speaker has given no indication he will revisit this plan and has remained noncommittal on whether the chamber will consider AI safety legislation ahead of the elections, if at all.

Jeffries also said the Democrat-only AI commission he convened this Congress could begin rolling out its policy recommendations soon, noting he plans to meet with the group’s three co-chairs this week. And he blamed Johnson for declining to reconstitute a bipartisan AI task force that would have allowed members of both parties to work together on the issue.

“We want to ensure that American entrepreneurs and companies can continue to lead in this space and not be overcome by the Chinese Communist Party,” Jeffries said of what the Democratic-led commission has been working on. “But on the other hand, we’ve got to ensure that the American people actually experience the benefits of artificial intelligence without being subjected to the very real, and very grave and very dangerous downsides.”

But while Jeffries is positioning Democrats as leaders on AI policy — now and in the next Congress — he declined to endorse a proposal from some of his colleagues to create a select AI committee if the party wins the majority in November.

“We’re focused on the substance, not the process,” he said, adding that any select committee discussions would take place after election day.

Jeffries did endorse the Ratepayer Protection Act — a bipartisan bill intended to shield Americans from energy costs associated with the data center boom — which is slated for a vote Tuesday.

“It’s a step forward,” he said. “More clearly needs to be done.”

Congress

Thune says ‘light touch’ needed on AI regulation

Published

2 hours ago

September 14, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday he sees a role for Congress in regulating artificial intelligence — albeit with a “light touch.”

Thune’s comments, made to reporters in the Capitol as President Donald Trump publicly railed against regulating frontier AI models, are the first he’s made since industry insiders sounded alarm bells about the technology’s potentially catastrophic impacts on humanity.

“It needs to strike a balance, light touch. You don’t want to stifle innovation, but I think you also want to make sure that the more advanced threats can be mitigated, and there’s a capability in place to do that,” Thune said.

He added that he believed Congress could put “guardrails around those types of more consequential threats without in any way harming our ability to stay ahead in the AI race.”

Thune introduced an AI safety bill with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) in 2023 and is negotiating a revised version that he said Monday “reflects the approach” he is advocating. Thune said he spoke with Klobuchar over the weekend about the revised bill, which is also being negotiated with Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and expressed hopes it would be finalized “hopefully soon” and that they can “get a path forward for it.”

Cruz previously told Blue Light News that he could hold a committee vote on AI legislation before the chamber adjourns ahead of the midterm elections — perhaps as soon as the end of next week.