Fox News contributor: “Republicans in the House now are going to be the ones who own the blame for TSA workers and the delays at the airports”
Ari Fleischer: “House Republicans are on the verge of making a terrible mistake”
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From the March 27, 2026, edition of Fox News’ America Reports
ARI FLEISCHER (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): I hate to say it, but I think House Republicans are on the verge of making a terrible mistake. They are about to transfer blame for this shutdown, which has been squarely on the Democrats who have taken out their hatred on ICE on TSA agents, and House Republicans are about to mess it up, keep TSA off the job and unpaid because they're trying to pass a purity test that cannot pass. They should pass with what the Senate did, and as we know, ICE is funded because of the Big Beautiful Bill. The House strategy is a mistake.
SANDRA SMITH (ANCHOR): What do you believe? How do you believe House Republicans, for example, with the speaker about to speak, how do you believe he could effectively proceed?
FLEISCHER: Well, the problem they have is they want to pass good legislation. They want to pass the SAVE Act. They want to have additional funding for ICE, so they're trying to get everything that they want. You can't get everything you want. Even if it's meritorious in our system. So the best course of all is to recognize Democrats did not get a single ICE reform that they’ve been pounding the table trying to get through the Senate. The Senate rejected every single one of the Democratic demands for reforms to ICE. And then they passed the bill to fund the rest of DHS, including the TSA workers. That leaves ICE unfunded in the appropriation bill, but it was already funded in the Big Beautiful Bill. So they can pass this now on a second reconciliation bill, which will only require 50 votes. Republicans had checkmated the Democrats in the Senate. Republicans in the House now need to move the pieces to let the checkmate happen. If they block this, Republicans in the House now are going to be the ones who own the blame for TSA workers and the delays at the airports.
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And these poor TSA workers. What's going to happen is this continues through this weekend, airports are going to shut down because TSA workers are just going to stop showing up en masse. This is just a terrible, wrong way to treat people. It's time to, everybody, cut your losses, fund TSA, live to fight another day.