Senate Republicans strike down Schumer’s ‘convoluted’ effort to fund TSA

Senate Republicans voted against a last-ditch effort from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to fund the Transportation Security Administration, as a shutdown fight over Department of Homeland Security funding barrels on.

Schumer introduced a bill to solely fund TSA, suspending Senate rules and advancing it through the Rules Committee, which doesn’t handle appropriations legislation. Needing 60 votes to pass, it failed along party lines, 41 to 49, with six Democrats and four Republicans not voting.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) was bemused by Schumer’s idea, calling it “convoluted.”

“I don’t know how you come up with this. I will give you credit for coming up with something that’s convoluted, but it doesn’t do anything that the [Democratic] leader says it does,” Thune said.

Schumer’s effort came just an hour after President Donald Trump appeared to up the ante for Democrats to fund DHS, which has been without funding for