WASHINGTON – This reporter took a small vacation and tried to return home on Sunday.
That turned out to be much more difficult than expected. Aware of reports of long lines at airports to clear Transportation Security Administration checkpoints, I arrived at New Orleans Louis Armstrong International Airport about four hours before my scheduled 5:30 p.m. flight to Washington D.C.
But that was not nearly enough time. The TSA line snaked all around the airport and all around the parking garage as hundreds of travelers were desperate to make their flights. Being New Orleans, a jazz ensemble played on a large dais in the middle of the airport, but it seemed incongruous considering the high anxiety and confusion within.
Joining other airports across the country, there were few TSA agents on duty to handle the normal crunch of Sunday travelers and scores of other airline passengers, including me, missed their flights and desperately tried to book another with the help of harried airline counter agents, many of whom were working double shifts.
It was chaos. The breakdown of the nation’s air transportation system is reverberating in Congress, which is struggling with a solution even as the political stakes are high.
Related: TSA workers at MSP receive Trump resignation offer
Having missed paychecks because of the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, which administers TSA and other vital government agencies besides those tasked with immigration enforcement, TSA agents are quitting or calling in sick.
That prompted President Donald Trump to order the deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the nation’s airlines, despite their lack of training in the screening of airline passengers. But Trump’s aim was to show he is a man of action and he called his idea brilliant, like the invention of the paper clip.
After deploying ICE agents to airports did not shrink the lines, Trump late Thursday said he would use his emergency powers to find other monies to pay TSA agents.
That seemed to break a logjam in the U.S. Senate, which had not been able to approve a DHS funding bill because congressional Democrats demanded new rules for immigration enforcement agents after they fatally shot Alex Pretti and Renee Good in January.
Early Friday, the Senate approved a bill that would fund DHS and the rest of DHS except for ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. The bill was approved by voice vote by a few sleepy senators who were still on the floor.
But that bill must go back to the U.S. House, which had earlier approved a bill that would fund DHS without carving out the immigration enforcement agencies, which had received a bonus payment of $75 billion in last summer’s “big, beautiful bill.”
Conservatives in the House, however, are demanding that any new bill that funds DHS include the Save America Act, legislation that would require voters to have government IDs to register and cast a ballot.
During those hours in a TSA line on Sunday, and then again in the early hours of Monday, I participated in and overheard a lot of conversations about the DHS shutdown, which began on Valentine’s Day.
There was disbelief that a government agency that also funds the Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was shut down. There was also a lot of sympathy for TSA workers and agreement that employees must be paid for the work they perform.
And there was total contempt for those who expected TSA agents to come to work, day after day, as bills pile up and grocery and gas money becomes scarce.
As soon as TSA agents were spotted at their stations (in greater numbers) early Monday, there was huge clapping and cheering from my fellow queue mates, many of whom had slept at the airport – and even napping in line on floor.
There was much gratitude that those agents began their shifts about a half hour before their normal 3:30 a.m. starting time to try to move as many passengers through their checkpoints and to the gates.
Stranded passengers did not blame congressional Democrats or Republicans. Or Trump. They blamed “the government.” A government that did not seem to care about their predicament, and by extension, the problems of everyday Americans.
If Congress doesn’t pass a final funding bill by Saturday night, the DHS funding lapse will become the longest shutdown of any federal agency in U.S. history — exceeding the 43-day government-wide shut down that ended in November.
More ethanol, please
The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday issued a waiver that allows the sales of fuels blended with 15% ethanol, or E15, to be sold for a while, an advantage for Minnesota’s corn growers whose crops are used to make the fuel.
The agency said the waiver would start on May 1 and last until May 20, noting that 20 days is the maximum they can authorize the use of gas blended with more ethanol under the Clean Air Act.
But the nation’s farmers want more.
American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall called for Congress to pass a bill that would make a year-round availability of E15 permanent.
“Biofuels play an important role in meeting America’s energy needs and are a win-win for farmers and drivers,” Duvall said in a statement. “E15 gasoline saves consumers 10 to 30 cents per gallon at the pump and creates markets for American-grown crops. Permanent sales of E15 blends would increase demand for corn by roughly 2.4 billion bushels a year.”
Nonetheless, Duvall thanks the EPA for making E15 available for a short period of time this summer. He also tipped his hat to Sen. Amy Klobuchar for her “call for quick action to enable year-round E15 sales. “
In a release, Klobuchar, who is running for governor and is the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, said she had asked the Trump administration “to allow for year-round sales of E15 in order to bring down prices at the pump and support our farmers.”
Related: How a food shelf helped MSP TSA officers during last fall’s shutdown
Rep. Angie Craig, D-2nd District, who is running for Senate and is the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, also weighed in. She’s introduced legislation in the U.S. House that would allow for year-long sales of E15.
“While a temporary waiver for the summer sale of E15 is welcome news and will bolster domestic markets for corn and sorghum farmers and hopefully provide some relief at the pump, it falls far short of the promise of permanent year-round E15,” Craig said in a release. “House Democrats have urged the Republican majority to make year-round E15 the law of the land. What are Republicans waiting for?”
In case you missed it:
The Minnesota Legislature, like Congress, has become enamored of huge “omnibus” funding bills. But Matthew Blake reports that the legality of a 2024 omnibus bill that ushered in a host of new programs is under review by a court of appeals that is weighing a challenge by the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus.
Metro reporter Trevor Mitchell had a story about how the Minneapolis City Council is struggling to find funding sources for rental assistance for residents affected by Operation Metro Surge.
There was also a story this week about the intense lobbying to delay a Senate vote on a bill that would lift a Biden-era moratorium on sulfide mining in the Boundary Waters watershed.
And Greater Minnesota reporter Brian Arola had a story about a coalition that is lobbying state lawmakers to curb data center development in the state.
Please keep your comments, and any questions, coming. I’ll try my best to respond. Please contact me at aradelat@minnpost.com.
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