Tipsheet

Rep. Kat Cammack Is Fed Up With Senate Democrats and Their DHS Funding Bill Games

Dmitri Bolt
Dmitri Bolt  |  March 30, 2026 2:45 PM

Rep. Kat Cammack slammed Senate Democrats over the funding bill passed early Friday morning, which was intended to end the more than 40-day partial government shutdown but failed to provide key funding for immigration authorities, including ICE and portions of Customs and Border Protection. 

While many Republicans have directed criticism at Senate Republicans like Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), Cammack accused Democrats of treating Republicans “like we are morons” and of neglecting to fund the Department of Homeland Security as they attempt to protect Americans from security risks that come with open illegal immigration, like sex trafficking.

"We do have a literacy crisis in this country, but for Pete's sake, I wish that the Democrats in the Senate would stop treating us all like we are morons," Rep. Cammack said. "We can read, and if they were to read the bill that they sent over to us, they wanted to withhold the paychecks of ICE, of CBP, Homeland Security Investigations, which investigates sex crimes against children."

"These folks are out to play politics with people's lives, and it's disgusting," she added. "They should not be getting paid, certainly not while there are other people who are sleeping in their cars and missing paychecks and really scrambling for everything that they can do to survive."

This comes as House Republicans blocked the controversial Senate funding bill, primarily over its failure to allocate sufficient funds to immigration authorities. The shortfall has directly affected Americans at airports, with passengers facing hours-long security lines and some airports reporting that nearly 40 percent of TSA agents did not show up for work. 

The president has taken steps to ease the problem, deploying ICE agents to airports nationwide and signing an executive order ensuring that TSA agents were paid, as many had struggled to afford even the gas to get to work. 

As of this morning, some TSA agents have reported receiving their pay.