News Wrap: Thune gives Democrats 'last and final' offer to end DHS shutdown

In our news wrap Thursday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune says the GOP has given Democrats a "last and final" offer to end the DHS funding fight, Florida Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick faced a rare public ethics hearing in Congress and a federal judge says he will not dismiss the case against ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro over a dispute involving legal fees. Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. John Yang: We start the day's other headlines in the nation's capital, where pressure is mounting on Congress to end the Homeland Security funding fight. Senate Majority Leader John Thune says he's given Democrats what he called a last and final offer. Sen. John Thune (R-SD): Enough is enough. Republicans have bent over backward to negotiate with Democrats. And now Democrats need to get serious about funding the Department of Homeland Security. John Yang: A vote to advance a bill to fund DHS was halted while senators discussed the latest Republican offer behind closed doors. Democrats have said the proposals so far don't do enough to put guardrails on immigration enforcement officers. Meantime, airport chaos continues across the country as TSA agents are poised to miss another paycheck tomorrow. Nearly 500 officers have quit the job altogether. Officials said TSA lines at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston took up to four hours and warned they could only get worse as the weekend approaches. Florida Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who's been indicted for allegedly stealing millions in taxpayer money, faced a rare public Ethics Committee hearing in Congress today. The bipartisan panel, which hasn't held a public hearing against a sitting member of the House in more than 15 years, began this investigation in 2023. Members questioned why they should delay their conclusion as she requests. Rep. Mark Desaulnier (D-CA): And the American people are entitled to demand accountability of all of us when they're -- if their elected representatives are without integrity. John Yang: Cherfilus-McCormick's lawyer joined the case less than three weeks ago. The congresswoman has denied any wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges against her. The result of the ethics process could bring political consequences, including possibly getting expelled from the House. New York's LaGuardia Airport has reopened the runway that was the scene of this week's deadly collision of an Air Canada jet and a fire truck. Crews hauled away the wreckage last night. The mangled plane was taken to a hangar for passengers to reclaim their belongings. The regional Port Authority said clearing the runway will help one of the nation's busiest airports return to full operational capacity. Most of the roughly 40 people who were injured in the crash have been released from area hospitals. A federal judge says he will not dismiss the case against ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife because of a dispute involving their lawyer's legal fees. Maduro's attorney said the U.S. government was violating his client's constitutional rights by blocking the Venezuelan government from paying those fees. The judge said he will rule on the issue soon. The deposed leader and his wife, Cilia Flores, have pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and weapons charges. President Trump said today that the Justice Department will bring other cases against Maduro, but did not elaborate. The International Olympic Committee has banned transgender women from competing beginning with the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. This aligns the IOC with President Trump's executive order barring transgender athletes from women's college sports. Athletes wanting to compete in women's events will have to undergo a one-time genetic test. Today, only one openly transgender woman has competed at the Olympics, a weightlifter from New Zealand in 2021, who did not medal. On Wall Street today, stocks suffered their biggest loss since the beginning of the war with Iran. The Dow Jones industrial leverage fell by more than 450 points, or 1 percent. The Nasdaq plummeted by more than 2 percent and the S&P 500 had its worst day since January. And as the men's and women's NCAA basketball tournaments continue tonight and tomorrow, there is only one perfect bracket left among the 40 million entries tracked across all the major sites. It belongs to 14-year-old Otto Schellhammer, an eighth grader from the Pittsburgh area. In the ESPN women's March Madness Challenge, he's correctly picked all of the 48 games played so far. There are no perfect men's brackets. What makes Otto's achievement all the more remarkable is that he says he knows basically nothing about basketball and doesn't even watch the games. But now his mother says he will be watching very intently.