Senate Republicans blocked an attempt by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to only pay Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers as the Homeland Security shutdown drags on.

Despite being in the minority and not controlling the Senate floor, Schumer used an arcane tactic to force a procedural vote to allow the Senate to get onto the bill in Democrats’ move to shift the narrative of the ongoing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown.

“It is unacceptable for workers and travelers and entire airports to get taken hostage in political games,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “But that’s what the Republicans are doing. It is unacceptable to say we will only pay TSA workers if it is attached to a bill that funds ICE with no reforms, but that’s what the Republicans have been doing.”

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The shutdown entered its 36th day on Saturday as the ongoing partial closure hurtles toward matching the record-breaking full government shutdown from last year. Schumer’s failed gambit follows increasingly long wait times at airports as thousands of TSA agents go without pay.

Senate Democrats have dug in deep in their demands for stringent reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and have so far refused to reopen the agency or temporarily extend funding to end the closure until they get what they want.

Senate Republicans and the White House made a new compromise offer to Democrats on Friday night after an open letter from the administration on several reforms to immigration operations was revealed earlier this week. The letter spurred two back-to-back meetings on Capitol Hill with Republicans, Democrats and administration officials.

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Whether they accept that offer or counter remains in the air for now. Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., who was in the meeting, said that she hoped there would be another soon.

“That will be up to them, but I hope so,” Britt said.

Still, Republicans tried and failed for a fifth time to fully reopen the agency on Friday. In the background, there have been several attempts by Senate Democrats to move forward with standalone funding bills — like Schumer’s gambit — to open parts of DHS, save for immigration enforcement.

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Time is also running out for lawmakers to find middle ground on reopening the agency, given that they are set to leave Washington, D.C., for a two-week break at the end of next week.

At a press conference earlier Saturday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told Fox News Digital that it’d be “very, very hard to explain if we leave town this next week without having funded the Department of Homeland Security.”

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“At some point the Democrats are going to be held accountable for this,” Thune said.

“I know they think it’s, as has been described by one of their leaders, ‘very serene, very serene’ with their position,” he continued. “Well, I’m telling you something, the people who are sitting in those lines at the airports right now don’t see it as very serene. This needs to be resolved.”

Meta, YouTube and Snapchat are already under scrutiny for risks they pose for young people. Now they are facing another hurdle in their home state.

California lawmakers are considering legislation to restrict social media use for teens and children under 16 years old. Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) and others introduced a bipartisan bill that would bar social media platforms from allowing users under 16 years old from creating or maintaining accounts.

The legislation comes amid mounting concerns about how social networks impact the mental health of young people. Anxiety among parents and lawmakers has heightened as platforms and AI chatbots become more intertwined with people’s daily life.

Last month, tech executives, including Meta’s chief executive and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, testified in a landmark trial in Los Angeles over a lawsuit that alleges social media is addictive and harms children.

The trial centers on whether tech companies such as Instagram, which is owned by Meta, and YouTube can be held liable for allegedly promoting a harmful product and addicting users to their platforms.

California has passed legislation before aimed at making social media platforms and chatbots safer but faced pushback from tech industry groups that have sued to stop new laws from taking effect. Tech companies are have responded by releasing more parental controls and restrictions for young users.

Other countries have been moving forward with restrictions on social media. Last year, Australia barred children under 16 years old from having social media accounts.

TechNet, whose members include Meta and Google, said in a statement that it hasn’t taken a position on the California bill but doesn’t believe a ban will effectively achieve the Legislature’s goal’s.

“We support balanced, evidence-based solutions that strengthen protections for young people, equip parents with meaningful tools, and ensure accountability across platforms. Our companies have made significant investments in teen safety and parental controls, and we remain committed to building on that progress,” said Robert Boykin, TechNet Executive Director for California and the Southwest in a statement.

The use of social media by young people has divided tech executives.

Pinterest Chief Executive Bill Ready wrote in an op-ed in TIME published on Friday that governments should follow Australia’s lead and ban social media for kids under 16 years old if tech companies don’t prioritize safety.

“Social media, as it’s configured today, is not safe for young people under 16,” he said.”Instead, it’s been designed to maximize view time, keeping kids glued to a screen with little regard for their well-being.”

Lowenthal’s bill cited social media’s dangers such as “exposure to harmful content, compulsive use patterns, exploitation, and adverse impacts on mental health and well-being.”

“Existing age-based restrictions that rely primarily on user self-attestation have proven ineffective and place an unreasonable burden on children and families rather than on the entities that design, operate, and profit from social media platforms,” the bill states.

A spokesman for Lowenthal didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The wife of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani reportedly celebrated terrorists in a series of social media posts as a teenager and young adult as scrutiny over her online history continues. 

In September 2017, Rama Duwaji posted a photo on her Tumblr account of Leila Khaled, longtime active leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) who participated in two plane hijackings in 1969 and 1970. 

“If it does good for my cause, I’ll be happy to accept death,” the caption said.

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Khaled is the first woman to hijack an airplane and is revered by terrorists for her role in the crimes. 

Many of her posts were made in her early 20s, the Washing Free Beacon reported, noting that Duwaji, now 28, spent her early childhood in New Jersey before moving with her family to Dubai. 

In March 2015, when she was 17, Duwaji reposted a tweet on International Women’s Day praising the terrorist Shadia Abu Ghazaleh. An image in the post shows Ghazaleh, who participated in the bombing of an Israeli bus and led several other terrorist attacks.

The image showed her posing with a rifle. She was killed in 1968 when a bomb she was building in her home accidentally exploded. The device that killed her was allegedly intended to blow up a building in Tel Aviv.

Other posts include someone wearing keffiyeh clothing while sewing a flag.

“Photography: ‘A Palestinian demonstrator sews a Palestinian Liberation Organization flag before a protest during the first Intifada’, February, 1988,” the caption says.

Another showed a Bangladeshi postage stamp that said, “We salute the valiant freedom fighters of Palestine.”

A July 2015 post criticized the U.S. military presence abroad. 

“*taps mic* American soldiers fighting in imperialist wars are not brave nor are they fighting for anyone’s freedom,” the post said. “They are mercilessly slaughtering 3rd world civilians and fighting to maintain American hegemony. That is all, thank you! *drops mic*”

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Later that same year, Duwaji reposted a Tumblr user. 

“You can’t blame muslims for terrorism because they didn’t construct, fund nor train Al-Qaeda,” the user wrote. “White People did that too.”

In another 2015 post, she reposted a criticism of Snapchat for adding Tel Aviv to its live story feature. 

“But in all reality, @Snapchat has disappointed me. F*** #TelAviv. Shouldn’t exist in the first place. They’re occupiers. You celebrate them,” a post retweeted by Duwaji said.

“And finally. Hey @Snapchat, as you give Israelis an outlet to celebrate their atrocities, youre supporting a genocidal state. Bye. #TelAviv.”

Duwaji, who was born in Houston and identifies as Syrian, married Mamdani in 2025,. She drew national attention after revelations she liked several posts in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack that were critical of Israel.

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On the day of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas, Duwaji liked an Instagram post showing images from participants who livestreamed footage of the onslaught, which left 1,200 Israelis dead, including young children. 

She also allegedly liked a February 2024 Instagram post claiming The New York Times’ investigation into sexual violence during the Oct. 7 attack was “fabricated,” 

Fox News Digital has reached out to the mayor’s office.