Senate Holds Cloture Vote on ATF Nominee Mark Cekada as DHS Shutdown Heads Toward Day 74

The Senate held a cloture vote at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday on Mark Cekada, the administration's nominee to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The vote determines whether the chamber can proceed to a final confirmation vote later in the week. Cekada has been pending since February. Republicans have framed the position as essential to firearms enforcement at a moment when ATF's leadership has been operating with an acting director for more than nine months.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune set up the cloture motion last week after a procedural delay tied to negotiations on the Department of Homeland Security funding bill. The same caucus that has been pushing the DHS appropriations measure forward also pushed for Cekada's vote to be brought to the floor. The two issues are not formally connected, but the floor schedule has been compressed to handle both inside the same session.

Democrats have raised objections to Cekada's record on firearms regulation, particularly his work on rule-making during a previous stint inside the bureau. Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee, told reporters Tuesday morning that he expected the cloture motion to clear on a near party-line vote. Durbin said the broader confirmation vote is likely to follow Wednesday or Thursday depending on how floor time gets allocated around the DHS bill.

The DHS shutdown reaches Day 74 on Tuesday. According to figures provided by the Office of Management and Budget last week, that mark would push past the previous record set during the 2018 to 2019 shutdown. Roughly 412,000 federal workers across DHS components are either furloughed or working without pay. Transportation Security Administration data shows about 838 officers have resigned from the agency since the lapse began, with the steepest departures concentrated at hubs in Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Charlotte, and Phoenix.

Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma has been working through a $70 billion reconciliation framework that would fold DHS funding into a broader package the Senate could move on a simple majority. The framework was filed Monday and includes border infrastructure, Coast Guard appropriations, and a backpay mechanism. Senate aides told reporters the Mullin proposal does not yet have the 50 votes needed inside the GOP conference. Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine have not committed.

A separate one-pay-period stopgap remains under discussion as a parallel path. That measure would fund DHS through May 23 and would not require the reconciliation process. Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday afternoon that the House would not take up a Senate stopgap that lacks border policy attached. The Senate has not formally introduced its own stopgap text. Floor staff said the chamber is keeping options open through the end of the week.

The 838 TSA resignation figure, if accurate, is the largest officer attrition number the agency has reported in any 75-day stretch on record. TSA Administrator David Pekoske briefed Senate appropriators Friday on staffing risks heading into Memorial Day weekend, when checkpoint volume typically rises 8 to 12 percent above baseline. Pekoske told senators a May 8 cliff exists because that is the second pay period workers will miss in full. Internal TSA modeling shows checkpoint wait times could push above 90 minutes at the largest hubs if attrition continues at current pace.

Cekada's confirmation, if it advances Tuesday night, would put a confirmed director at ATF for the first time since July 2025. The bureau has been working under acting leadership during a period of expanded enforcement priorities tied to firearms trafficking cases on the southern border. Senate Republicans have framed those cases as evidence that ATF needs a confirmed leader. Senate Democrats have argued the bureau should be running differently regardless of who holds the seat.

The cloture vote requires 51 senators to invoke. Republicans hold 53. Even with Murkowski and Collins potentially crossing over on confirmation grounds, the cloture motion is expected to clear. The full confirmation vote, if it happens this week, would land alongside Wednesday's Federal Open Market Committee statement and the King Charles state visit, which is set to wrap Wednesday afternoon. Floor leaders said scheduling pressure from those events is part of why Cekada is being moved this week.

Outside the chamber, advocacy groups on both sides have run a final round of paid digital ads targeting senators in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Wisconsin, and Arizona. Spending has been concentrated on persuadable Democrats given that the GOP majority is holding. Federal employee unions, including AFGE, have continued daily rallies outside the Capitol focused on the shutdown rather than on Cekada specifically. AFGE leadership has told members the union expects the shutdown to extend through at least the second pay period before a deal closes.