US Senate Fails to Pass DHS Funding Bill Amid Partial Shutdown

The US Senate again failed to pass a funding bill to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), amid a partial shutdown that has lasted almost a month. By a vote of 51-46, mainly along party lines, lawmakers in the upper chamber remain at an impasse over stronger guardrails on federal immigration enforcement. Only one Democrat, senator John Fetterman, broke with his party to vote for the appropriations bill that would fund DHS through September. This is the fourth time the Senate has failed to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to pass a DHS funding bill this year. The partial shutdown has resulted in a delay in pay for TSA agents, with lines doubling at security checkpoints at Miami International Airport. A recent college graduate, Praharsha Pinninti, described the legislative standoff as 'a test of time, and it's a test of patience, and it's a test of our integrity as an issue.' The Department of Homeland Security agents who will go unpaid are the first line people that greet people coming into our country, Pinninti noted. Despite the challenges, the checkpoints remained staffed. In a separate incident, the FBI is investigating the ramming of a car into a Michigan synagogue as 'a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.' The suspect, who was identified as Mohamed Jalloh, a former member of the army national guard, pleaded guilty in 2016 to attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State. The US temporarily suspended sanctions on the sale of Russian oil, issuing a Treasury Department license to allow the sale of Russian crude oil and petroleum products loaded on vessels through April 11. The decision was made in response to spiking oil prices caused by the US attack on Iran. The US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, cast the windfall for Russia as one of a series of steps taken by Donald Trump 'to promote stability in global energy markets and working to keep prices low as we address the threat and instability posed by the terrorist Iranian regime.'

The US Senate's failure to pass the funding bill has resulted in a series of unexpected events, including a White House event in honor of Women's History Month being turned into a celebration of Donald Trump's legislative achievements. The president, who previously dodged the Vietnam War draft, posted an old photo of himself in uniform, as a teenage high school student at the New York Military Academy. The post was quickly shared by an official White House account. The US military medical evacuation flight on Thursday brought 19 injured service members from Saudi Arabia to a US base in Germany. Two were reportedly injured by a drone that exploded next to their vehicle. The US temporarily suspended sanctions on the sale of Russian oil, issuing a Treasury Department license to allow the sale of Russian crude oil and petroleum products loaded on vessels through April 11. The decision was made in response to spiking oil prices caused by the US attack on Iran.