REUTERS—The Homeland Security Department said on Friday it was taking emergency action to pay 50,000 airport security officers who have gone unpaid since mid-February, after work absences brought chaos and long security lines to U.S. airports. “[The Transportation Security Administration] has immediately begun the process of paying its workforce. TSA officers should begin seeing paychecks as early as Monday,” DHS said. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he would take executive action to pay TSA workers and issued a memo directing the payments Friday. The TSA said earlier on Friday that nearly 12% of airport security officers did not show up for work on Thursday, the most absences since mid-February. Major disruptions, including airport security lines of several hours or more, were reported at a number of major airports on Thursday and again on Friday. The TSA said more than 3,450 officers did not show up for work on Thursday, including more than one-third of officers at New York’s JFK and at airports in Baltimore, Houston, and Atlanta. The TSA cited reports of lines of four hours or more at airports across the country—the worst lines in the agency’s nearly 25-year history. Airline officials told Reuters that absences and lines could worsen this weekend if there were no concrete details on how TSA officers would be paid. Nearly 500 airport security officers have quit since February. It is unclear how long the funding will last or whether Trump would tap funding for the Homeland Security Department approved last year as part of a massive tax and spending bill. Democrats in Congress have held up funding for DHS while demanding a change in rules governing its immigration operations, after agents in Minneapolis shot and killed citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Republican leaders in the House of Representatives on Friday rejected a bipartisan Senate compromise to end the six-week deadlock over DHS funding. Congressional Democrats had proposed funding TSA separately while negotiating over reforms on how Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents operate. The TSA had reiterated on Wednesday that the agency could be forced to close smaller airports if staffing issues worsened. Airports are grappling with a school spring break travel surge with about 5% higher volume than last year’s. Hundreds of immigration agents and Homeland Security Investigations officers began deploying at 14 U.S. airports on Monday to aid security screening. Originally published by Reuters. The post DHS Orders Payment of 50,000 US Airport Workers in Emergency Action appeared first on The Daily Signal.

While the pro-life cause suffered a major setback in Ohio when the Reproductive Freedom Amendment passed in 2023, Ohio lawmakers continue to pass legislation to protect the unborn. The Ohio House of Representatives passed the Share the Health and Empower With Informed Notices Act, or the SHE WINS Act for short, on Wednesday by a party-line vote of 64 to 32. The informed consent bill was introduced in the Senate on Thursday. This bill requires women to be informed of alternatives to abortion, as well as the risks associated with the procedure and of carrying her pregnancy to term. The bill also requires a 24-hour waiting period for women seeking an abortion. Under the bill, a woman is to be informed of medical assistance benefits, as well as how she may withhold or withdraw her consent of the abortion at any time. A woman must freely consent to the abortion without coercion. There’s also a provision about medication abortion reversal, with the bill noting “that time is of the essence.” A major focus of the bill for both supporters and opponents is the 24-hour waiting period. “For a decision as monumental as abortion, a time of reflection first is the least we can ask,” Ohio Right to Life Executive Director Carrie Snyder said. “Ensuring patients receive details of a major procedure with time to process the information before the procedure occurs is certainly a standard of care practiced in other areas of medicine,” she added. Nan Whaley, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio, claimed the SHE WINS Act would be a “burdensome 24-hour roadblock” for women seeking abortion in a statement shared with The Daily Signal. While the bill’s critics claim the legislation is burdensome, supporters suggest the bill simply holds the abortion industry to the same standard as others in the medical community. In a statement for The Daily Signal, Republican Ohio state Rep. Josh Williams explained it’s about “ensuring abortions are held to the same clinical standards as other medical procedures.” “We should provide all patients considering undergoing any medical procedure with all the information necessary to establish informed consent, including abortion procedures,” Williams added. Center for Christian Virtue Senior Fellow Peter Range told The Daily Signal that the SHE WINS Act is “a commonsense bill for women’s health.” “All it requires is that elective abortions meet the same informed consent standards applied to other forms of medical care, Range said. “The bill ensures that any mother has access to all necessary information, including the risks, before making a final decision about abortion.” “It’s beyond me why anyone who cares about women’s health would oppose this,” Range added. Supporters of the bill also believe that, if signed into law, it would not be struck down in the courts because of the Reproductive Freedom Amendment. “The issue 1 constitutional amendment that passed in Ohio says that a state interest is compelling if it is for the limited purpose of protecting the health of the individual seeking care and is consistent with accepted clinical standards,” Williams explained. This “bill does exactly that,” Williams claimed. Range was similarly confident. “This legislation should withstand any court challenges because it doesn’t affect any provisions of the abortion amendment passed here in Ohio,” he explained. “This bill focuses on women’s health and safety, so it should receive broad support.” Whaley’s statement, meanwhile, claimed “the right to an abortion is protected by the Ohio Constitution,” and argued that a prior bill similar to the SHE WINS Act was ruled unconstitutional in 2024. “Continuing to push these medically unnecessary restrictions is a waste of time and taxpayer funds and directly contradicts the will of the voters,” Whaley claimed. In addition to the 24-hour waiting period, the bill includes provisions such as women being informed of the abortion procedure being used as well as abortion alternatives. Whaley also took issue with the abortion reversal provision, which she described as an “an unproven and unethical procedure that goes against the current American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists (ACOG) standards and ultimately compromises patient safety.” “Ultimately, the court battles will land in the Ohio Supreme Court, where we await their interpretation of the amendment,” Snyder told The Daily Signal. “In the meantime, our legislators care deeply about women and babies in Ohio and are doing their best to make sure that at the very least, women have solid information and time to process it.” The post Ohio Lawmakers Remain Steadfast in Passing Pro-Life Legislation appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The Justice Department opened an investigation into male inmates being placed in women’s prisons in California and Maine. The DOJ notified California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Maine Gov. Janet Mills respectively on Thursday about the pending probes, noting the danger to female inmates of potential sexual assault. California law allows male prisoners who identify as females to be incarcerated in women’s prisons under the state’s 2021 Transgender Respect, Agency, and Dignity Act. California has transferred 47 prisoners from male to female prisons since passing the 2021 law. However, out of 84 requests, it has transferred only seven female inmates to male prisons, according to data from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. “Keeping men out of women’s prisons is not only common sense – it’s a matter of safety and constitutional rights,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. “The Trump Administration will not stand by if governors are facilitating the abuse of biological women under the guise of inclusion.” The Justice Department will investigate potential violations of constitutional rights of female inmates at prisons in San Bernardino County and Madera County in California, and at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham, Maine. Noting allegations of sexual assault, the DOJ press release said that men in California state prisons charged with sex crimes that “have intact genitals, can request transfer to women’s prisons based on self-identification as transgender.” Prisons under the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation are safe, spokeswoman Terri Hardy said. “CDCR is committed to providing a safe, humane, respectful and rehabilitative environment for all incarcerated people, enforcing a zero-tolerance policy as mandated by the federal legal requirements known as the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA),” Hardy told The Daily Signal. “Any suggestion that all transgender women be assigned to men’s institutions as a matter of policy is a suggestion to violate federal law.” The department says 2,405 inmates are classified as “transgender, non-binary, and intersex.” Of those, 1,028 requested to be transferred from male to female prisons, with 246 requests pending, and 132 denied. Another 140 inmates changed their mind. The California numbers show that three people were transferred back to male prisons involuntarily, while nine were transferred back voluntarily. The Justice Department says it will also investigate allegations that Maine has allowed a biological male inmate to remain housed with women despite complaints of assault. “Incarcerated individuals can be particularly susceptible to having their rights violated,” Andrew B. Benson, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maine, said in a public statement.  “The U.S. Attorney’s Office is committed to protecting the civil rights of all Maine citizens, no matter where they live, and will work with our colleagues in the Civil Rights Division to ensure that this vulnerable population is protected from harm while housed in state custody.” Jill R. O’Brien, director of government affairs at the Maine Department of Corrections, stated that Maine prison officials refer any crimes to prosecutors. “The Department follows state and federal law in our practices regarding transgender residents,” O’Brien told The Daily Signal. “Transgender residents’ housing decisions are made by a multidisciplinary team, under department policy, in compliance with state and federal law.” Under Maine law, inmates have the right to have their “gender identity respected and acknowledged, irrespective of anatomy or physique.” The law also says that housing “must be consistent with the person’s consistently held gender identity except when such placement or search would present significant management or security problems to the correctional or detention facility or threaten the health and safety of the person.” However, the most recent monthly report from Maine’s department says that of 2,069 state inmates, “No residents identified as transgender.” The federal government terminated certain grants to Maine last year on the basis of the Department of Corrections’ transgender policy, but the funding was restored, O’Brien noted. The post Trump DOJ Cracks Down on States Housing Biological Men in Women’s Prisons appeared first on The Daily Signal.

House Republican leadership and the party’s hardline conservative faction rejected the Senate’s homeland security funding deal, which omits funding for border security. “The Republicans are not going to be any part of any effort to reopen our borders or to stop immigration enforcement,” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., said Friday afternoon as he announced his intention to advance an eight-week stopgap funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security instead. “We are going to deport dangerous criminal illegal aliens because it is a basic function of the government. The Democrats fundamentally disagree,” he said. The bill, which would extend funding of the agency to May 22, has little chance of passing the Senate as written. Democrats have demanded additional restraints on immigration enforcement as a condition of funding the entire department. Early Friday morning, the Senate agreed by unanimous consent to fund key agencies within DHS, such as the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, before leaving for recess. However, the bill did not fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and most of Customs and Border Protection. House conservative hardliners outright rejected the Senate proposal, stating their desire to fund immigration enforcement and include a requirement for photo identification to vote in federal elections. The Senate abdicated its responsibility.No funding for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which fights child sex trafficking.No funding for Border Patrol.No voter ID.Bad for America. Bad for Americans.Full @freedomcaucus press conference ? pic.twitter.com/G3eksYsK9s— Rep. Eric Burlison (@RepEricBurlison) March 27, 2026 “It’s absurd,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, at a Friday press conference with fellow Freedom Caucus members. “I mean, could the Senate be any more lazy than to send us a bill that doesn’t do the job and then leave town?” Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va., a member of the House appropriations committee, said, “We can’t take a bill up that literally is defunding the priorities of the president, the things that we ran on, the reasons that we were elected.” Moore added, “We need to amend that bill, put our priorities back in it.” The House rules committee, the leadership-controlled panel that determines the conditions for debate of bills on the House floor, would also need to support a funding bill before a floor vote. Committee member Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., called the Senate’s work “ridiculous,” attributing it to “pure laziness and desire for the Senate to go on vacation instead of doing their job.” My constituents didn’t send me to Washington to defund ICE and not pass the SAVE America Act.We need to amend this bill to:– fund ICE– fund CBP– add Voter IDThe American people need to us to hold the line. pic.twitter.com/uqCaQ28KmN— Rep. Riley M. Moore (@RepRileyMoore) March 27, 2026 On the ensuing House Republican conference call, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., announced his alternative plan of a clean extension of funding for the department. Rather than clear a path for ending a six-week shutdown, the Senate’s after-midnight deal may be more of a setback. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was quick to speak on behalf of his party in opposition to the House Republicans’ plan. “A 60-day CR that locks in the status quo is dead on arrival in the Senate, and Republicans know it,” wrote Schumer on X. A 60 day CR that locks in the status quo is dead on arrival in the Senate, and Republicans know it.We’ve been clear from day one: Democrats will fund critical Homeland Security functions—but we will not give a blank check to Trump’s lawless and deadly immigration militia… pic.twitter.com/WBivMRihcw— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) March 27, 2026 The post ‘ABSURD’: House Rejects Senate DHS Bill appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The House of Representatives passed bipartisan legislation to grant the president authority to limit U.S. port access for countries who have seized American property abroad. As Congress remains bitterly divided on the SAVE America Act and funding for the Department of Homeland Security, the Defending American Property Abroad Act of 2026 passed with bipartisan support. The bill, introduced by Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, passed by a vote of 247 to 164.  “Today’s House passage of my Defending American Property Abroad Act of 2026 is a necessary step to protect American businesses and workers from unfair treatment overseas,” Pfluger told The Daily Signal.   My Defending American Property Abroad Act just PASSED the U.S. House!When countries violate trade agreements and illegally seize assets from U.S. companies, it puts American job security, economic security, and national security at risk. Proud to have led on this bipartisan… pic.twitter.com/yaCuiKnLkH— Rep. August Pfluger (@RepPfluger) March 27, 2026 The impetus for Pfluger’s legislation was a long-time dispute involving the Mexican government and a U.S. owned port in Mexico. Lawmakers say that Mexico has violated the USMCA trade agreement by attempting to seize control of a port operated by Vulcan Materials.   Vulcan Materials Company, based in Alabama, is one of the nation’s largest producers of construction aggregates. Pfluger has raised concerns about this dispute since 2022, but in March 2023, Vulcan’s deep-water port at Punta Venado was seized by the Mexican government. “When countries violate trade agreements and illegally seize assets from U.S. companies, it puts American job security, economic security, and national security at risk. This legislation is critical because it ensures there are enforceable consequences for those actions,” Pfluger said.   Mexico is using its military to illegally occupy the property of an American company, Vulcan Materials. This facility and port are critical to our trade and security strategy, which is why I’m leading an effort to deter Mexico from fully seizing this facility and ensure they face…— Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne (@RepBethVanDuyne) September 23, 2024 “It sends a clear message to any foreign government that the United States will not tolerate this behavior,” Pfluger continued. “We will defend our economic interests, uphold the rule of law, and stand firmly behind American companies operating abroad. The legislation stipulates that ships may be restricted from entering U.S. waters or unloading at U.S. ports without the president’s approval if these vessels previously stopped at ports previously owned by U.S. entities but later taken over by foreign governments in the Western hemisphere. Speaker Mike Johnson congratulated Pfluger on the House passage of the legislation. “U.S. investments abroad have long been essential to both our economic development and national security,” Johnson claimed, “and this legislation takes a crucial step to protect and defend U.S. business interests globally.” “I am thrilled to see this pass with overwhelming bipartisan support,” Pfluger said, “and I will continue advocating for it until it passes through the Senate and is signed into law.”  The post House Passes Legislation to Combat Mexican Government’s Seizure of American-Owned Port appeared first on The Daily Signal.