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Government Shutdown - TPR's In Focus - March 27, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

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  Support comes from the Wiregrass Archives at Troy University's Dothan Campus,
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  identifying and preserving historical documents and photographs for research related to the
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  Wiregrass region. More information at troy.edu slash wiregrass archives.
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  From Troy Public Radio, this is the news wrap from In Focus, and I'm Carolyn Hutcheson. Todd
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  Stacy, host of Alabama Public Television's Capitol Journal, discusses the negotiations
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  in Washington over the shutdown, and his wild card features a squirrel who is high on more than trees.
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  Todd, welcome back to the news wrap. Good to be with you. What's the news this week that
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  really everyone is concerned about? Well, you know, the legislature is on spring break,
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  but we've been turning our attention to Washington, where negotiations continue over
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  funding the Department of Homeland Security. You know, we are still in a partial government
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  shutdown. That is the only department of the federal government that is not funded right now.
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  When passing this series of appropriations bills a little more than a month ago,
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  Democrats objected to that because of all the immigration crackdown, the situation in
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  Minneapolis. They wanted reforms to ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, before
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  agreeing to fund the department. They've held out for almost 40 days now. Senator Katie Britt is the
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  chairman of the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee. So she is the person
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  that writes their budget, essentially. So she's in the middle of these negotiations between the
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  White House and Senate Democrats over what concessions, what reforms they'll make. They've
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  already made some concessions, including disallowing the wearing of masks in certain
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  places, requiring body cameras, policy changes for DHS. And of course, Trump himself fired the
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  secretary, Kristi Noem. So there have been some changes made. It seems like Democrats don't quite
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  have everything they want yet. But I think this is an active situation right now, because Congress
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  is getting ready, scheduled at least, to take a two-week recess for Easter and Passover. I can
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  tell you that it would not be wise for them to leave town while TSA is not funded, while these
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  long lines are still at airports. And obviously, we're in a heightened terror situation with
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  everything going on in Iran. So lots of eyes on Washington, D.C. right now, and specifically on
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  our own Katie Britt. And look at what the consumers are contending with. Gasoline hikes that keep
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  going up. Airport lines that you just mentioned. Inflation, the war in the Middle East. It's such
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  an uncertain time. Oh, sure. And you can throw tariffs in there. And like you said, inflation.
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  The airport situation is really untenable. Our reporter, Alex Engel, flew home to Houston the
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  other day, and she got lucky because she used the Southwest Airport. But her relatives said they
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  waited in Houston for four hours to get through the TSA line. Can you imagine having to get there
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  five hours early and wait in that kind of line? And of course, it's also not fair to those employees
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  that aren't getting paid. So it's a really rough situation. Todd, we need a wild card more than
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  ever. Let's lighten up. This comes from UPI. They're reporting on a vaping squirrel in a park
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  in Brixton across the pond. Wildlife experts are warning of the dangers of discarded nicotine
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  projects after a squirrel was caught on camera vaping in a London park. I just can't imagine
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  this squirrel. He's vaping. I guess he's addicted to nicotine. So yeah, be careful where you throw
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  your vapes. High and not even in a tree. Todd, who's on Capitol Journal? Investigative journalist
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  Maggie Cates from AL.com. She worked with a team of journalists to uncover and expose this PFAS
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  issue, these forever chemicals that were coming downstream from the Georgia carpet plants. It
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  ended up being a frontline documentary. Also, Melanie Poole and Natalie Steed of the American
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  Village as we get closer to the 250th celebration. And Dr. Bill Lambiasi of UAB Medicine here in
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  Montgomery. They have a health policy summit coming up. Good episode of Capitol Journal
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  tonight at 7 30 or Sunday at noon on APT. Thank you so much, Todd, for the news wrap. Thank you.
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  That was Todd Stacy, host of Alabama Public Television's Capitol Journal. More information can
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  be found at the website aptv.org and on YouTube. Thanks for joining us for the news wrap from
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  In Focus, which is a podcast wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Carolyn Hutcheson,
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  and this is listener supported Troy Public Radio.