The decision reverses earlier plans to bring on roughly 100 student interns through the federal cyber scholarship program, leaving participants in limbo after months of shifting guidance and adding new uncertainty around job placement requirements tied to the award.
Amid an extended funding standoff affecting parts of the Department of Homeland Security, GOP leaders are considering whether the budget reconciliation process could provide a path to advance funding and immigration priorities without Democratic votes.
Senate Republicans are preparing a reconciliation push that would fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol for three years, a move that could help end the Homeland Security Department shutdown but it faces opposition from Democrats and uncertainty in the House.
A proposed FY27 overhaul would still leave DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis answerable to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, despite questions about its oversight.
The House was expected to pass the Senate’s measure funding most of the Homeland Security Department through September on Thursday morning, but didn’t take action.
The Homeland Security Department has been shuttered for 45 days as Congress remains at an impasse, making it the longest government shutdown in history.
Emergency order would cover airport screeners who have gone without full pay since mid-February but not other DHS employees, as lawmakers remain deadlocked on funding.
With the federal government refusing to identify agents or share evidence, the dispute has become a game of constitutional chicken over states’ rights versus federal immunity, with implications for others hoping to hold agents criminally accountable.
TSA officers themselves typically train for six months before they are placed on the job, but the agency says ICE is already helping with the shutdown-induced crisis.
DHS will be "adequately staffed" after the shutdown, Markwayne Mullin says, though he warns the ongoing shutdown could have significant mission impacts.