Security screening wait lines at LaGuardia Airport in New York, USA [AFP=Yonhap News]

The U.S. Senate passed a bill on the 27th (local time) to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) budget, Bloomberg News and others reported.

This opens a path to resolving the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, which began due to delays in budget processing caused by disagreements between Republicans and Democrats over reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The budget bill will be finalized after passing the House of Representatives and being signed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Earlier, President Trump announced on Truth Social that he would sign an executive order directing the Secretary of Homeland Security to immediately pay TSA agents.

As a consequence of the shutdown, the Department of Homeland Security had been operating without regular budget allocations since January 14th, leading to a halt in salary payments for employees of its subordinate agency, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

With TSA employees, who were not receiving their salaries, taking consecutive sick leaves or resigning, severe congestion occurred at airports across the United States, with security screening wait times extending to several hours.