Will record TSA wait times spur a DHS funding deal?
The NPR Politics Podcast
NPR
4.4 • 25.7K Ratings
🗓️ 26 March 2026
⏱️ 16 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode: voting correspondent Miles Parks, congressional reporter Sam Gringlas, and senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro.
This podcast was produced by Casey Morell and Bria Suggs, and edited by Rachel Baye.
Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Miles Parks. I cover voting. I'm Sam Greenglass. I cover Congress. |
| 0:11.5 | And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent. And we are recording this at 12.38 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, March 26th. And as of today, the Department of Homeland Security has been |
| 0:22.5 | without funding for 41 days. Sam, there was talk earlier this week that Congress might be close |
| 0:30.3 | to a new funding deal for DHS. Where does that stand now? So before we get into any of this, |
| 0:36.4 | I just want to put out a little disclaimer that the state |
| 0:39.6 | of play in this moment that we are talking could be totally different a few hours from now, |
| 0:45.1 | because that has been pretty much how this week has played out. It has been constant whiplash |
| 0:51.3 | from, you know, optimism about a deal to all sides being really far apart, |
| 0:56.6 | to talks picking up again and then floundering again. This morning, we are hearing from top Senate |
| 1:01.9 | Republicans that they have given Democrats their best and last offer. Democrats have said |
| 1:08.1 | they're seeing signs of progress right now. But again, that is so different from where we were just last night when I left the Capitol when lawmakers were in a really foul mood. I mean, even members of the Senate that are usually really cheerful when they answer questions from reporters seemed so incredibly frustrated. |
| 1:26.6 | Well, I do wonder whether part of that is this public |
| 1:28.5 | pressure that seems to be building. It wasn't really apparent the first couple days. DHS was shut |
| 1:33.3 | down, but I feel like the Transportation Security Administration issue here in terms of, |
| 1:39.3 | it sounds like a number of workers have quit their jobs. These are employees who are not getting |
| 1:43.3 | paid, and that's leading to |
| 1:44.5 | longer lines at airports. How is that playing into, you know, these negotiations? Yeah, I mean, |
| 1:51.2 | something we often talk about is how long a shutdown lasts can depend a lot on how much |
| 1:56.9 | members of the public are actually feeling it. And we have certainly seen people at airports |
| 2:03.2 | feel in it this week. We also heard from the acting administrator of the Transportation |
| 2:08.3 | Security Administration who testified in the house this week. And she told lawmakers that |
| 2:14.3 | airports are dealing with the highest wait times in TSA's history. |
... |
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