The House of Representatives passed a stopgap measure that would temporarily fund the Department of Homeland Security late Friday, but the 43-day shutdown could drag on for several more weeks.

The two-month funding extension approved by the House is likely dead on arrival in the Senate, where any funding bill needs to overcome a 60-vote threshold, meaning buy-in from a handful of Democrats. That hurdle has not stopped House GOP leadership from arguing that their rejection of a Senate-passed deal — and pitching a subsequent rival DHS funding proposal — is the way out of the shutdown.

«We’re not going to split apart two of the most important agencies in the government and leave them hanging like that,» House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters leaving the U.S. Capitol on Friday night. «We just couldn’t do it.»

«House Republicans will have no part in reopening the border and stopping illegal immigration enforcement,» Johnson said earlier Friday on «The Ingraham Angle,» in a scathing takedown of the Senate-passed deal that stopped short of funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and portions of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

TSA CALLOUTS HIT HOUSTON, ATLANTA, NEW ORLEANS HARDEST, 450 OFFICERS HAVE QUIT NATIONWIDE

But the full-court press launched by House Republicans aimed at persuading the Senate to return to Washington to take up their bill is likely to fall on deaf ears in the upper chamber.

A GOP aide told Fox News Digital that «the easiest way to end this shutdown is for the House to pass the Senate-passed bill.»

«We know the Democrats are not going to support a CR, in fact the Senate tried to pass CRs for the last 40 days and Dems have blocked Every. Single. One,» they said.

Senators left Washington, D.C., for a two-week Easter recess after unanimously approving a DHS funding measure in the early morning hours Friday with some traveling abroad on congressional delegations.

«I would suggest that the Senate does come back and at least take a vote,» House Republican Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain said Friday. «That is what they were elected to do. So they’re going to stay out on recess for two weeks and not come back while people don’t get paid. That’s pretty sad.»

Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, also called on the Senate to return to Washington «immediately» to take up the House-passed measure in a statement late Friday. 

House lawmakers are also scheduled to be in recess for the next two weeks.

Left holding the tab in the cross-chamber feud are the tens of thousands of DHS employees working unpaid during the shutdown.

President Donald Trump moved Friday to shield TSA agents from further financial distress by taking executive action directing DHS to pay those employees with existing funds. 

The roughly 50,000 agents have missed two full paychecks during the ongoing funding lapse, leading hundreds to quit their jobs and forcing others to grapple with mounting financial distress.

The president’s move is likely to alleviate lengthy wait times at TSA security checkpoints, though senior officials have warned of long-term impacts due to more than 500 agents quitting during the funding lapse.

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before departing on Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House, Friday, March 20, 2026, in Washington, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio listens. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo)

DEMS BLOCK DHS FUNDING AFTER GOP REJECTS THEIR COUNTER, THUNE SAYS SCHUMER ‘GOING IN CIRCLES’

However, other DHS personnel, such as those employed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the U.S. Coast Guard and certain support staff working for ICE and CBP will still have their paychecks withheld until the department’s funding is restored. 

«Anybody who shows up to work deserves to get a paycheck, and the Senate needs to come back and at least do their job,» McClain told Fox News on Friday. 

Democratic lawmakers are sure to spend the next several weeks blaming Republicans for the impasse after Johnson’s decision to reject the Senate deal. 

«We’re here dealing with a partisan spending bill that the Senate has already indicated is dead on arrival,» House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said on the House floor Friday. «And so Republicans have taken the decision to own this shutdown decisively. There is no doubt.»

The short-term DHS funding patch passed by the House is a clean extension of government funding and has no partisan policy riders.

Trump also came out against the bill Friday afternoon in an interview with Fox News.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., didn’t believe that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., nor House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., would be honest brokers in the upcoming DHS negotiations.  (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

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The bill notably does not include any of the reforms that Democrats have demanded for six weeks to rein in immigration enforcement, including tightening warrant requirements and prohibiting agents from wearing masks.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who warned throughout the funding stalemate that nobody wins in a shutdown, has indicated that Democrats are less likely to get those demands met than when the funding lapse first started.

«I mean, I think that ship has sailed, and they kind of kissed that opportunity goodbye by failing to provide funding for those agencies,» Thune said.

El papa León XIV denunció que en este momento histórico “la ostentación de la fuerza y la lógica de la prevaricación perjudican al mundo y amenazan la paz”, en el discurso a las autoridades durante su breve viaje de este sábado al pequeño principado de Mónaco.

En su primer discurso asomado al balcón del palacio del Príncipe tras haberse reunido con Alberto II, León XIV afirmó que este país ubicado “entre los países fundadores de la unidad europea, posee en su independencia una vocación de encuentro y cuidado de la amistad social” que hoy en día “están amenazados por un ambiente generalizado de cerrazón y autosuficiencia”.

Y en este pequeño Estado, donde pasará apenas 9 horas, afirmó, hablando en francés, que “una herencia espiritual viva” debe comprometer su riqueza al servicio del derecho y de la justicia, “especialmente en un momento histórico en el que la ostentación de la fuerza y la lógica de la prevaricación perjudican al mundo y amenazan la paz”.

En el balcón, junto con Alberto II y Charlene, vestida de blanco y mantilla por el privilegio dado a las soberanas católicas, León XIV no obvió que en Mónaco viven una mayoría de ciudadanos procedentes de otros países y que muchos de ellos “ocupan cargos de considerable influencia en el ámbito económico y financiero”.

Añadió que habitar en este país “representa para algunos un privilegio y, para todos, una llamada específica a interrogarse sobre su lugar en el mundo”.

Mónaco es el país con mayor concentración de millonarios del mundo; más de un tercio de sus 39.000 habitantes tienen un patrimonio neto superior a 1 millón de dólares. Es considerado paraíso fiscal sin impuesto sobre la renta y con un PIB per cápita medio de 267.522 euros que hacen de sus habitantes los más ricos del planeta.

Y en este país, el papa afirmó que “cada talento, cada oportunidad, cada bien depositado en nuestras manos tiene un destino universal, una exigencia intrínseca de no ser retenido, sino redistribuido, para que la vida de todos sea mejor”.

Y por ello habló de la necesidad de compartir y recordó la necesidad de poner a los pobres en el centro.

Recordó que Mónaco es uno de los pocos países del mundo que tienen la fe católica como religión de estado y aseguró que esto “no aplasta, sino que libera; que no separa, sino que une”.

También elogió el compromiso del principado y Alberto II por la ecología integral.

Tras este discurso, el papa firmará el Libro de Honor en el Salón de los Espejos y, tras la presentación de la familia en la Sala de la Guardia, el príncipe mostrará los dos frescos de la fachada que representan la visita de Pablo III en 1538 y el paso del féretro del Papa Pío VI en 1802. Finalmente, ambos entrarán en la capilla para un momento de recogimiento.

El papa León XIV y el príncipe Alberto II saludaron a los varios cientos de habitantes del principado desde el balcón del Palacio tras haber mantenido una reunión privada, durante la breve visita que el pontífice estadounidense está realizando este sábado.

León XIV llegó en helicóptero al pequeño Estado y se trasladó al palacio del Príncipe donde fue recibido con todos los honores por Alberto II y su esposa Charlene, que estaban también acompañados por sus hijos mellizos Jacques y Gabriela, vestida de blanco como su madre.

En el patio del palacio también se encontraban en la tribuna de las autoridades Carolina y Estefanía de Mónaco.

Tras visitar el palacio y reunirse con Alberto II en el Salón de Famille tuvo lugar el encuentro privado, seguido del intercambio de regalos y de las fotos.

Se trata de su segundo viaje apostólico internacional, el primero de un papa en la época moderna ya que sólo se tiene constancia de que en 1538, Pablo III pasó por ese territorio de regreso del Congreso de Niza.

(Con información de EFE)

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz insists that President Donald Trump will be «impeached over and over and over again» if the Democrats win back control of the House in this year’s midterm elections.

And the conservative firebrand and three-term senator from Texas, in a sit-down interview this week with Fox News Digital, argued that if Democrats win both the House and Senate majorities in the midterms, «they will do whatever they can to burn it down,» as he pointed to the agenda passed by Trump and Republicans in Congress.

As they fight to hold their slim majorities in both the House and Senate, Republicans are battling stiff political headwinds as the party in power in the nation’s capital traditionally loses seats in the midterms. And they also face a rough political climate fueled by economic concerns over persistent inflation, an unpopular war with Iran and Trump’s underwater approval ratings.

«I think these midterm elections are unbelievably consequential,» said Cruz, who won re-election in 2024 and isn’t on the ballot this year.

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And the senator pledged, «I am all in fighting for us to win in the midterms, fighting for us to hold the House, fighting for us to hold the Senate and, ideally, grow our majorities in both houses.»

«If the Democrats take the House, no meaningful legislation will pass for the next two years, and we will see the president impeached over and over and over again. And by the way, it won’t matter what for. They will impeach President Trump just because they hate him, because he is Donald Trump,» Cruz claimed.

CRUZ: TRUMP’S MOVE TO STRIKE IRAN ‘MOST CONSEQUENTIAL DECISION’ OF HIS PRESIDENCY

And he argued, «We will see investigations attacking the administration in every House committee if they take the House.»

Cruz said implications for Trump and the GOP are even worse if Democrats also win back the Senate.

President Donald Trump speaks with the media before boarding Air Force One, Monday, March 23, 2026, at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo)

«If they take the Senate, we would see an almost complete halt of Senate confirmations — Cabinet members. I think these radical Democrats would leave cabinet offices empty, leave them vacant, rather than confirm President Trump’s nominees. I think judicial nominations. If the Democrats took the Senate, they would essentially halt judicial nominations,» he claimed.

And he charged, «I think Chuck Schumer and the radicals are so extreme that if they get a majority, they will do whatever they can to burn it down.»

But Democrats argue it’s President Trump who’s lighting the match due to what Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chair Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York called Trump’s «hurtful and harmful agenda.»

«President Trump is creating a toxic agenda that’s harming people, and they’re looking for Democratic leadership to take them out of this nightmare,» Gillibrand argued in an interview last month with Fox News Digital.

And Democratic National Committee Rapid Response Director Kendall Witmer told Fox News Digital: «If Democrats take Congress, the Republicans won’t be able to give massive tax breaks to billionaires, shutter nursing homes and rural hospitals, bomb foreign countries instead of feeding kids, or turn a blind eye to Trump’s open and egregious corruption.»

Cruz heads back home to Texas this weekend, where he’ll address the crowd Saturday in Dallas at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, better known by its acronym CPAC.

But it’s a stop on May 1 in Iowa — the state whose caucuses for half a century have kicked off the race for the Republican presidential nomination — that’s sparking speculation that Cruz is gearing up for a second White House run.

Cruz was runner-up to Trump in the combustible 2016 GOP presidential primaries, and he took a look at making another run in the 2024 cycle before deciding to seek re-election to the Senate.

«There will be plenty of time to make those decisions. I don’t have an announcement for you today,» Cruz answered when asked by Fox News Digital if seriously considering another White House campaign.

Then-Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas speaks during the Road to Majority 2015 convention in the nation’s capitol, on June 18, 2015. (Andrew Harnik/AP Photo)

But he appears to be laying the groundwork for a possible bid, as he positions himself as a conservative alternative to Vice President JD Vance, who is currently the odds on favorite to be Trump’s MAGA and America First heir.

Cruz has grabbed plenty of attention with his clashes with far-right figures, such as Tucker Carlson, and he’s enhanced already strong standing among conservative leaders and donors. And he’s bolstered his grassroots outreach with his popular and widely downloaded podcast, ‘Verdict with Ted Cruz.’

In his Fox Digital interview, Cruz also shared what seemed to be the beginnings of a possible 2028 stump speech.

«I look back to the last year with President Trump in the White House and with a Republican Senate in the house, we have accomplished more in the last year than I’ve seen Congress and the president accomplish in the preceding 13 years that I was here. It is an incredible record of success that we’ve been able to produce. And so my focus is, number one, keep delivering results, keep delivering big wins for the American people,» Cruz said.

Cruz spotlighted that he was «the author of no tax on tips. I wrote that law.» The cuts were one of the tax provisions in the GOP’s massive domestic policy bill that was passed nearly entirely along party lines last summer.

The senator also pointed to the so-called «school choice» provisions in the measure, as well as the Trump Accounts, tax-advantaged, IRA-style investment accounts for children under 18 that were also included in the law.

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«Both of those provisions I wrote, both of them are in the bill,» he noted.

And Cruz predicted that in «10, 20, 30 years from now, those two provisions, school choice and the Trump accounts, will be, by an order of magnitude, the most consequential provisions in the entire bill. So we’ve got a record of wins, of victories for the American people to run on.»