Speaker Mike Johnson Blames Senate for Ongoing DHS Shutdown: They Need to ‘Do Their Job and Help Us’

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) blamed the Senate for the ongoing Department of Homeland Security shutdown during an appearance on Fox & Friends Tuesday morning.

As the standoff between Republicans and Democrats in Congress over funding for DHS has dragged on, TSA agents have been working at the nation’s airports without being paid. Numerous agents who cannot afford to forgo their paychecks have been calling out, leaving travelers mired in hours-long security lines — including an NTSB investigator who was trying to get to the scene of a deadly runway crash at LaGuardia Airport.

Both Republicans and Democrats have pointed fingers of blame at the other side, with Democrats emphasizing the fact that President Donald Trump is a Republican and the GOP has a majority in both the House and the Senate, and Republicans squabbling over the filibuster and accusing Democrats of making unreasonable demands.

Meanwhile, nothing is going to get solved anytime soon because Congress went home for spring break.

Lawrence Jones began the interview with Johnson by mentioning an executive order signed by President Donald Trump that meant most TSA agents were “finally getting their paychecks again after 40 days,” and blaming Democrats because they “still refuse to back a bill ending the longest shutdown before leaving town on vacation.”

“Mr. Speaker, thank you so much for joining Fox & Friends,” said Jones. “It is rare that I see you raise the octaves of your voice on Capitol Hill. But when you found out that they weren’t going to fund ICE or Border Patrol, you seemed furious. The question is, why did everyone leave town?”

Johnson replied:

Well, they sent us this bill in the dead of night. It was about a 2:30 am vote. And it came to us right before everyone was scheduled to go home.

We passed the bill — the full funding bill, a CR for eight weeks, clean, nonpartisan, no tricks on that at all, just to keep the whole Department of Homeland Security funded for eight weeks so the parties could work out the differences. We thought that would be passed by unanimous consent on Monday, and it didn’t happen in the Senate, and so we’ve got a dilemma.

The outrage, and the reason we were so upset, Lawrence, is because they sent us a bill that literally put the number zero in the bill for the funding of border security and Customs and Immigration Enforcement.

We can’t do that. That was the biggest issue in the 2024 election. And it’s outrageous to us — just in those two agencies, CBP and ICE, you’re talking about 98,000 hardworking Americans, self-sacrificing people who have to pay their mortgages and put food on the table. They want to zero them out? We cannot be part of that.

So we’re calling on everybody. Look, the House members are in their districts working right now. We can bring it back on a moment’s notice for a vote. The Senate has to do their job and help us on this heavy lift. We have to get the government funded and they’re playing games with real people’s lives.

After discussing Delta Airlines cutting off perks for members of Congress, Jones asked Johnson when he thought the partial shutdown would end.

“Soon, I hope,” said Johnson. “We have to get the government operating again. As I said, I can call the House members back for a vote as soon as we get something worked out with the Senate. Obviously, we are working around the clock. I was up until midnight last night having conversations with senators to get this done. But it’s a shame — it looks like we will have to do the heavy lift on our own — Republicans — because the Democrats are — they’re obstructionists at this point and it’s really sad.”

Watch the clip above via Fox News.

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