A claim that the U.S. Senate passed a bill aiming to ban members of Congress from getting preferential treatment during airport security screenings circulated online in mid-March 2026.
Users on X (archived, archived) circulated the purported news along with videos of exceptionally long lines at airports. One said (archived), "NO MORE special bypasses, ESPECIALLY when Senate Dems can't even keep DHS open and TSA paid!"
🚨BREAKING: The U.S. Senate has PASSED a bill banning members of Congress from using expedited TSA security lines
pic.twitter.com/WmToYaK04C— Jack (@jackunheard) March 20, 2026
The claim was true.
The Senate unanimously consented to pass the bill on March 19, 2026, though it will have to pass through the House of Representatives before being signed by President Donald Trump and becoming law, which it had not as of this writing.
The proposed law was intended "to prohibit preferential screening for Members of Congress at airports, and for other purposes," according to its official description.
The bill was introduced amid reports of long wait times at airport security checkpoints, due primarily to staffing shortages caused by the lapse in Department of Homeland Security funding that began in mid-February 2026. Its sponsor was Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who posted on X (archived), "It is hypocritical for Democrats to continue to refuse to fund TSA and other Department of Homeland Security functions, while getting expedited treatment at airports unlike their constituents."
The legislation appeared to be an attempt to urge Democratic lawmakers to end the lapse of funding for DHS, the department that oversees the TSA, by inconveniencing them during their travels.
The language of the bill stated that "none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available to the Transportation Security Administration shall be used to provide or facilitate the provision of a Member of Congress with expedited or preferential access to or through security screenings," which would include trusted traveler programs such as TSA PreCheck.
Reportedly more than half of TSA employees at Houston's William P. Hobby Airport called out of work due to lack of payment. A search of George Bush International Airport's TSA wait times displayed a wait of up to 150 minutes.