Republicans in the US House of Representatives have rejected a bipartisan deal to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and instead approved a different plan, prolonging the shutdown that has caused huge delays at airports.

Their Senate colleagues backed a bill that would have reopened most of DHS but excluded funding for immigration agencies to garner support from Democrats.

House Republican leaders rejected this, with Speaker Mike Johnson labelling the Senate bill a "joke".

TSA agents, who manage US airport security, have not been paid in more than a month due to the impasse. Congress is now heading on a two-week break.

House Republicans are demanding that the legislation includes money for immigration enforcement, and their plan would mean funding DHS at current levels - including for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) - for 60 days.

"Republicans are not going to be any part of any effort to reopen our borders or to stop immigration enforcement," Speaker Mike Johnson said.

They passed the measure in a 213 to 203 vote late on Friday. The bill will head back to the Senate for approval but top Democrat Chuck Schumer described it as "dead on arrival" in the upper chamber.

Democrats have pushed to halt funding to immigration agencies covered under DHS without reforms.

With Congress taking a two-week break, funding for the DHS - which covers TSA agents, as well as ICE and Customs and Border Protection - appears unlikely to pass any time soon.

President Donald Trump signed an order directing his administration to pay hundreds of airport security agents. The DHS posted on X late on Friday: "TSA officers should begin seeing paychecks as early as Monday, March 30."

The move may be met with legal and political challenges, as the US Constitution tasks Congress with authorising spending for the federal government.

There has been widespread disruption at airports across the US, where travellers have faced hours-long queues due to a shortage of TSA officers at security checkpoints.

Around 50,000 agents with the TSA have been working without pay since mid-February. This has reduced the number turning up to work each day and led to hundreds quitting.

Currently, only a third to 50% of its TSA checkpoints are operating, according to Jim Szczesniak, director of aviation for the Houston Airport System.

A few hours before the Senate vote, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he would sign an executive order "to immediately pay our TSA Agents".

"Trump should never have had to step in to rescue TSA workers and US air travel," said the Republican Senate Majority Leader, John Thune, addressing the chamber after the vote.

"We're here because, thanks to Democrats' determined refusal to reach an agreement, there will be no Homeland Security funding bill this year," he said.

Schumer said the package included funding for the TSA, US Coast Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency.

He told the chamber that "in the wake of the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Senate democrats were clear: no blank cheque for a lawless ICE and border patrol".

There has been mounting controversy over the actions of ICE agents, particularly in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where US citizens Good and Pretti were shot by federal agents during operations earlier this year.

Democrats want any deal on DHS funding to include measures like an end to ICE agents wearing masks, a ban on racial profiling and a requirement for judicial warrants to be issued before agents can enter private property. (BBC)

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