Congressional leaders invited King Charles III to address Congress Wednesday while failing to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The leaders of the House and Senate invited the king to address a joint meeting of Congress on April 28. This move came while DHS has been shut down for 46 days, causing a major shortage in Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents and impeding Americans’ travel schedules.
“On behalf of the bipartisan leadership of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate, it is our honor to invite you to address a Joint Meeting of Congress on Tuesday, April 28, 2026,” the letter states. “The relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom has evolved into one of the most consequential partnerships in modern history. That close relationship is rooted not merely in shared interests, but — as Queen Elizabeth II told a Joint Meeting of Congress in 1991 — in a shared “spirit of democracy,” and a commitment to the fundamental values of individual freedom, consent of the governed, and the rule of law.”
As we reported last week, King Charles III will address a joint session April 28 pic.twitter.com/egagjrLNfE
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) April 1, 2026
Congress left for a two-week vacation during the shutdown and is not expected to return until April 13. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that President Donald Trump called on Congress to end their vacation and reconvene to reopen DHS.
The partial shutdown began on Feb. 14 while Senate Democrats issued a list of demands on immigration reforms, which included prohibiting ICE agents from racial profiling and wearing masks. The demands were in response to the immigration enforcement-related killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The shutdown caused hundreds of TSA agents to quit after working for weeks without a paycheck. Trump signed an executive order on Friday mandating that TSA agents be paid while the shutdown continued. He also deployed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to major airports to assist TSA agents.
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