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Senate Unanimously Moves to Fund Most of DHS, Pay TSA Workers; Long TSA Wait Times as Weekend Travelers Head to Airports; Israeli Defense Minister Says, Strikes on Iran Will Escalate and Expand. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired March 27, 2026 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[10:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, a Senate deal to fund Homeland Security. But the bill must now pass the House as TSA workers miss yet another paycheck today. I'll speak to several TSA officers over the next two hours.

Plus, threat delayed. President Trump says he'll hold off on targeting Iranian energy sites for ten days, as the Israeli defense minister says, strikes on Iran will, quote, escalate and expand.

And later, first public court test. Right now, the U.S. Justice Department is in front of a judge defending its seizure of 2020 election ballots in Georgia.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. Pamela Brown is off. You're in The Situation Room.

And we begin with the breaking news. Right now, the House is in session and getting ready to consider a breakthrough to pay TSA workers for the first time since February. And that would mean relief is on the way eventually for travelers spending hours and hours in TSA lines sprawling across many U.S. airports. Overnight, the U.S. Senate voted unanimously to fund most of the Homeland Security Department, including TSA. Democrats successfully demanded that new funds for ICE and Border Patrol be withheld to force debate over reforms.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): Democrats didn't actually want a solution. They wanted an issue, politics over policy.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): In the wake of the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Senate Democrats were clear, no blank check for a lawless ICE and Border Patrol.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: There is bipartisan support in the house to approve this deal before Congress begins a two-week recess that's scheduled to begin later today. Just before Senate approval, President Trump said he would order DHS to pay TSA workers. Now, that may not necessarily be necessary.

It's not yet clear when they'll get that paycheck and all of their back pay. TSA workers are voicing their frustration that led to 500 of their colleagues simply quitting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULIAN ABE, TSA OFFICER: All my saving that I put aside for other purpose had been used up. So, that's frustrating because I will have to rebuild all the savings I had.

TATIANA FINLAY, TSA UNION REP, AFGE LOCAL 556: It has come to the point of like having to skip meals because I have to make sure that my kids are fed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: We're covering all the angles of this very important unfolding story from airports around the country to the White House and here in Washington up on Capitol Hill.

Let's begin with CNN Congressional Correspondent Lauren Fox. She's there on Capitol Hill. Lauren, the Senate-passed bill goes to the House of Representatives now. So, how does that play out today?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think Wolf, there are still a lot of unanswered questions right now, how quickly House Republicans may agree to this as well as whether or not they're going to be able to move this expeditiously or not.

We heard from House Speaker Mike Johnson just a few minutes ago, and he was frustrated with where the Senate left things, arguing that Democrats essentially dug their heels in and are not spending ICE or CBP operation, something that he says is really dangerous for the country. He said, stay tuned, when asked whether or not House Republicans are going to get behind this proposal. So, that leaves a huge question mark. Is he going to bring this to the floor? How quickly is he going to bring this to the floor?

Meanwhile, I am talking to some House Democrats who seem very open to the package that was passed out of the Senate in part because it's very similar to what they have been pushing for on the floor over the course of the last several days and weeks.

Now, there are some procedural hurdles perhaps that they're going to have to work through, but I talked to Representative Jim McGovern, a Democrat who told me that he does believe that Democrats could get behind this proposal.

But, again, it's just a matter of how quickly this all comes together, Wolf, in part, because, as you noted, TSA workers are going to miss another paycheck.

[10:05:01] It's not clear if they're going to get this done today, if this is going to go into the weekend. So, a lot of unfolding things happening, taking place right now on Capitol Hill.

And, Wolf, I'll tell you that they are voting right this second. Sometimes things start to break loose once lawmakers get on the floor together. Sometimes though, it can also spell trouble. So, this is going to be an opportunity for House Speaker Mike Johnson to hear from some of his lawmakers. Wolf?

BLITZER: You're going to be busy today. Lauren Fox up on Capitol Hill, thank you very, very much.

I want to go to the White House right now. CNN's Alayna Treene is on the scene for us. Alayna, the president, ordered the Department of Homeland Security to pay TSA workers. Do we know why he waited until day 40 to do this?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I think essentially from my conversations, Wolf, with people at the White House, he essentially had enough and he's of course seeing the impact, and I should say also the political impact as well, that the shutdown is having on Americans across the country. These long TSA lines, you know, TSA workers, as you shared in that clip, at the top of the hour, people struggling to make ends meet because they are missing these payments. And there are questions about why not -- you know, why haven't they done this sooner?

I will say, officials continue to argue that this is Congress' job. They have the power of the purse. It is their job to make sure that the Department of Homeland Security is funded.

But I think, Wolf, a key question, of course, now, is now that there was this, you know, breaking news overnight, early this morning as Lauren laid out that the Senate Republicans were able to reach a consensus with Democrats and get the funding bill passed, at least in the Senate, it does raise questions once I've asked the White House, many people in the White House about this, they have yet to give me a clear answer, on whether or not this executive order to fund the TSA and TSA workers is actually going to move forward.

I know that people in the White House last night when they were announcing this, the president, we're trying to figure out even where the money would be coming from. Some sources told CNN that it could potentially be moved around to come from the one big, beautiful bill passed last summer. So, questions there on whether or not this is even going to be necessary if the House is able to pass this funding bill for DHS swiftly.

I will say as well, the president had made that executive order announcement about, you know, moving money around to pay for TSA just moments before he got a call from the Senate majority leader, John Thune, and other Senate Republicans saying that they had reached a deal. So, again, all of this moving very quickly last night, and then, of course, with that passage in the Senate potentially changing things here. BLITZER: Yes, the ball is now in the court of the House of Representatives.

All right, Alayna Treene, thank you very, very much.

Also happening now, we are still seeing hours-long lines at TSA checkpoints at multiple airports across the country, some as long as three hours right now.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is over at George Bush Airport in Houston, Ryan Young is at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta.

Ed, first to you. What does TSA wait times look like there in Houston where you are?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we've seen them hovering around the three-hour mark, maybe a little bit more. But what really stands out to me, Wolf, is just the precautions that travelers are now being forced to take. A lot of these people that I've been talking to in these lines here throughout the morning have flights for early afternoon. They've been showing up seven to eight hours ahead of their scheduled flight time. They don't want to miss that. Many of them have already missed flights and they're trying for a second time, and they're just tired of going through this process.

But, you know, the traffic here does ebb and flow. If you look down below us on the second floor, this area has been filled for much of the morning. This is where the people that you see up here where I am start off in the line down here one floor below us. This is usually the baggage claim area, and now it's rather empty. Now, what happens is there are shift changes, you know, with the TSA agents, so some lines close and open. And if there's a shift change and some lines are shut down, this can literally fill up again in about 30 minutes time.

But a lot of the people that you see standing around us here are about an hour and a half away from getting to the front of the security line. And this morning, Wolf, we have seen Department of Homeland Security investigation special agents manning the I.D. checkpoints in these TSA lines. In fact, we were as well watching just a short while ago one of those agents being trained by a TSA agent, so some of those federal agents that have been brought here perhaps starting to get some of the training to go through all of this. But if this spending bill is passed and the TSA agents are eventually paid, or, you know, all of that might be coming to an end pretty soon as well. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Ed, stand by. I want to go to Atlanta right now, Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Ryan Young has been there all week, as we all know. Ryan, what do the lines look like there this morning?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Wolf, we had long lines this morning that stretched outside the building, but just like that, they're all going right now.

[10:10:02]

Look at the lines here at the main checkpoint. There is almost nothing to see here.

What we will show you though is all the ICE agents who are now manning the front post here checking I.D.s. So, they're helping to keep that flow move very quickly here at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. We're talking about wait times, again, we're over an hour this morning, that is all gone. The airport staff here have been really working to clean this up.

The one thing that we can tell you is everyone seems to be mad with Congress. We've heard that over and over again. What were they doing? Why did this take so long? Why haven't they paid these people? That's what we kept carrying over and over.

As we were stating here, they were calling this a zoo. Well, that has been taken care of then. The administration here at this airport has been able to clear this all out.

Now, we're walking down this direction because what I do want to show you is we can get as almost up close as possible to show you how they're checking folks in here. This is a nice agent right here. You have a TSA agent working right behind him. They check folks in and then they go through the screening process.

Clear still remains closed here. TSA pre-check is open, but this flow has really picked up in the last half hour or so. People have been smiling. Even the workers here have been saying they're glad to see less people moving through in those long lines because it was a mess early this morning.

BLITZER: All right. Ryan Young reporting for us, Ryan, thank you very, very much.

Also new this morning, just days after a deadly crash at New York's LaGuardia Airport, the FAA is now investigating a very dangerous close call between a commercial plane and a military helicopter. A United Airlines jet filled with 168 passengers and crew was preparing to land near Los Angeles when a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter suddenly entered its path, coming so close, it triggered the plane's anti- collision alert system. United says the pilot saw the chopper and immediately aborted landing, avoiding a crash that was potentially only seconds away.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: United 89, just want to clarify here, did you get just a traffic call reference to the helicopter or did they restrict your altitude or anything?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had a resolution advisory for United 589, R.A.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to be addressing that because that was not good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: California's National Guard says the helicopter was on a routine training mission and a thorough review will be conducted.

Still ahead, left in limbo, we'll speak to two TSA agents working without pay despite efforts in Congress. There's no timetable when they'll see their money.

And next, escalate and expand strikes, the new threat from Israel's defense minister. We're live in Tel Aviv with the latest developments.

Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

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BLITZER: There's more breaking news, Israel's defense minister now says strikes against Iran will, quote, escalate and expand in response to Tehran's missile fire.

Here in the U.S., President Trump announced he's extending a deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and delaying attacks on Iranian energy sites by some ten days amid ongoing talks to try to end the war.

The president's remarks came on a volatile day for the markets here in the U.S. Stocks saw their steepest daily decline at the close since the start of the Iran conflict. Take a look at this, how the Dow Jones has gone down since the war began down 6.2 percent.

Let's go live right now to our Chief National Security Analyst Jim Sciutto. He's in Tel Aviv for us.

Jim, how is Israel taking President Trump's decision to delay strikes on Iranian energy sites at least for ten days?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: You know, Wolf, I think you could read the Defense Minister Israel Katz's comments that you noted there as an important qualifier on the talk of a truce, right, the talk of a truce because they haven't gotten there. You know, President Trump was really just delaying an escalation of the war. U.S. strikes continue on Iran. He's just delayed the expansion of those strikes to include Iranian energy infrastructure.

Israel, for its part, is saying it's expanding its strikes inside Iran, a response, it says, in part to the number of strikes we've seen headed in this direction from Iran, a handful of air raid warnings here in Tel Aviv today, a bunch of those yesterday, in fact, one of the busiest days of the war.

So, Iran maintaining the capability, though diminished, to fire at its neighbors, and we saw other strikes by drones and missiles today on Saudi Arabia, on Kuwait, Jordan, said that three came its way. It was able to intercept them though one fell on its territory. So, even as its capabilities have been reduced and depleted by us and Israeli strikes, Iran is maintaining some capability to strike back. And Israel's response to that is to say, well, we're going to expand our strikes on Iran. But, Wolf, even beyond that there are some signals here that Israel is attempting to strike as many targets as it can before if and when the U.S. and Iran reach some sort of ceasefire agreement, again, still very much an open question. But Israel wanting to reduce Iran's ballistic missile capability as much as it can prior to any such ceasefire, and I think in Katz's words, you're seeing him attempt to make some justification for that.

BLITZER: Jim Sciutto in Tel Aviv, stay safe over there. Thank you very, very much.

[10:20:00]

Joining us now to discuss the war with Iran and more is Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts. He serves on the Senate Commerce Committee. Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

President Trump says he's now delayed the targeting of Iranian energy sites another ten days as, quote, talks are ongoing with Tehran. Does that give you any hope these discussions are yielding real progress towards peace?

SEN. ED MARKEY (D-MA): No. Trump, in his cabinet meeting yesterday, said that he had taken a little detour into Iran. Well, this little detour has come with a big price, higher prices for oil, higher prices for gasoline, higher prices for home heating oil, higher prices for natural gas, and the price of lost American lives of our servicemen who are over there.

And what Trump is now saying is that he is delaying his attempt to take Kharg Island, which is the big oil depot in Iran. That would be, well, prove perfect violation of the first law of holes, which is when you're in one already, stop digging.

The price at the pump is a buck a gallon more for all Americans. It's Trump at the pump. His picture might as well be on the pump of every gas station in America. Trump should just end this war now. There's nothing to be gained from escalating ten days from now, an all-out assault on Kharg Island.

I want to watch what the White House press secretary, Senator, Karoline Leavitt said this week about Congress' role in this war. Listen to this.

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REPORTER: Is there a point either a number of ground troops or a number of days at which the president will consider seeking authorization from Congress?

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, as you know right now that formal authorization from Congress is not necessary because we're currently in major combat operations in Iran. The Department of War and the president, as I said, estimated about a four to six-week timeline for the full completion of these military combat operations. We're again on day 25 today. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: How do you respond to that, Senator?

MARKEY: Well, Trump said that the war was only going to take four to six weeks. We're already in there four weeks, and he's saying that they're ahead of schedule. So, that means that the war must be scaling down. But we know that's not the case because they have asked for $200 billion more to be appropriated by the Congress. And the war is taking $2 billion a year -- a day, rather, to prosecute, meaning a hundred more days of war, taking us into the summer.

So, Congress must have a role. We must have vote on whether or not this war can be extended and escalated because that is what the $200 billion is meant to achieve. And people all across our country will be paying the price. Because when a war goes on in the Strait of Hormuz, the price is paid at the pump with $1 or $2 a gallon more. Congress should be in. It affects our national security, it affects our economy profoundly.

BLITZER: On the partial government shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, Senator, the Senate overnight, as you know, move to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security except for ICE and Border Patrol. How confident are you this measure will get through -- get enough support to pass through the House of Representatives, and what happens next if it doesn't?

MARKEY: Well, this is the deal which the Democrats put on the table four weeks ago. We said right from the beginning, pay all of the TSA agents and the Republicans said no. So, finally, overnight, the Republicans in the Senate at least have said, yes, we'll pay all of those TSA agents, we'll ensure that the personnel are there, the help Americans get through airports in our country.

And just to avoid that chaos, the Republicans have to make that same decision today on the House floor. But if they vote no, I wouldn't want to be a Republican congressman trying to go to an airport to go home this weekend because they're going to run into a lot of angry constituents.

The Republicans should have started out where they're being forced to wind up, but at least today, please vote to fund all of those TSA agents and make Americans happy that they can go to the airport without thinking they have to be there for four or five hours.

BLITZER: Yes, the House is scheduled to go on a two-week spring break, a recess later today. Let's see if that happens because this vote in the house is so critical.

The funding dispute, as you know, Senator, has dragged on and on for more than 40 days. It's still not clear if there will be any significant reforms to immigration enforcement operations despite Democrats' demands.

[10:25:01]

So, what has this shutdown actually accomplished as far as ICE is concerned?

MARKEY: Well, as far as ICE is concerned, the Republicans still refuse to accept the safeguards that the ICE agents have to wear badges, they have to identify themselves. They have to wear body cameras. They cannot wear a mask. They have to obtain warrants if they're going to be breaking down the front door of people's homes. They have to abide by the constitutional protections. ICE is not exempt from all of the restrictions, protections, which the local police and state police have to abide by. They still as a party, the Republicans, refuse to accept that.

So we're still going to have a big battle over ICE. I believe ICE should be defunded. I don't think that ICE is any longer capable of existing because it is so corrupt at its core. But we still have to have that debate over whether or not we are going to allow this rogue agency to continue and to be funded without safeguards being built in.

BLITZER: Well, they certainly have plenty of money right now thanks to what was called that big, beautiful bill. So, the ICE is still getting its funding and Border Patrol is still getting their funding despite what the Democrats in the Senate have been trying to do.

MARKEY: Well, that's correct. And we're going to continue to raise these issues because Renee Good was murdered. Alex Pretti was murdered both on the streets of Minneapolis. And we are going to continue to raise this issue.

ICE is out of control. We need to put safeguards in to protect Americans and cities all across the rest of this country. And from my perspective, ICE must be defunded.

BLITZER: All right. Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, thanks as usual for joining us.

MARKEY: Great to be with you. Thank you.

BLITZER: And coming up, the U.S. Justice Department is facing its first public test in its effort to investigate Fulton County Georgia's 2020 election results right now. What we're learning from inside the court, that's coming up next.

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