In the spring of 2026, the Department of Homeland Security was shut down. Its workers were going without paychecks. The Coast Guard, FEMA and airport security were all under strain.
On March 27, Zach Nunn had a chance to help end it. He voted the other way. Two days later, he and his wife left on a week-long trip to Scotland and Ireland, paid for by an outside group.
The vote
The Senate passed a bill in the early hours of March 27 that funded almost all of Homeland Security. That night, the House adopted a rule, H. Res. 1142, that set the Senate's bill aside and swapped in a Republican version instead. The shutdown kept going.
Nunn voted Aye.
We laid out exactly how that rule worked when we covered another Republican who voted for it: Michigan's Bill Huizenga, who turned up at Edinburgh Castle four days later. As that post shows, the House gave up on April 30 and passed the Senate's bill after all, the same bill it had set aside five weeks earlier.
The trip
According to The Daily Beast, which reviewed Nunn's official House disclosure, Nunn spent March 29 through April 4 touring "castles, sites connected to the British Royals, and soaking in Irish culture in Dublin."
Here's what the week included:
- A private guided tour of Edinburgh Castle
- A walk down Edinburgh's Royal Mile
- A stop at Falkland Palace
- A visit to Dublin, Ireland
His wife, Kelly, came along. The trip was sponsored by the Republican Main Street Partnership. The disclosure records $15,400 in gift travel for Nunn alone.
The stated purpose was studying U.S.-U.K. relations and business development connected to his seat on the Financial Services Committee.
Meanwhile, back home, the shutdown was a 76-day lapse that, as the Daily Beast put it, "left Department of Homeland Security employees without paychecks and strained operations at the Coast Guard, FEMA and the Transportation Security Administration."
Not his only trip
Scotland wasn't a one-off. The Daily Beast reported it was "one of four expensive foreign excursions he's taken so far this Congress," with other trips to Greece, the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland.
And according to LegiStorm figures cited by the Daily Beast, Nunn has spent $86,784.22 on member travel in this Congress, the third-highest total of any House member.
Nunn's office did not respond when the Daily Beast asked about the trip.
Why it matters
Members of Congress take sponsored trips all the time, and some of them do real work. That's not the problem here.
The problem is the timing and the choice. Homeland Security workers were going without paychecks. A bill to pay them had passed the Senate. Nunn voted for the rule that set it aside. Then, while those workers were still waiting, he spent a week at castles and palaces with his wife on someone else's dime.
If he believed the shutdown was worth fighting over, the place to fight it was Washington. He was in Edinburgh.
The bottom line
On March 27, 2026, Zach Nunn voted for the House rule that set aside a Senate bill to reopen the Department of Homeland Security. From March 29 to April 4, while DHS workers went unpaid, he and his wife took a sponsored trip to Scotland and Ireland worth $15,400 in gift travel for him alone. He has spent $86,784.22 on member travel this Congress, the third-highest total in the House.
Source
MAGA Rep Took Wife on Lavish Trip During Gov Shutdown — Leigh Kimmins and Will Neal, The Daily Beast, September 6, 2026. Photo illustration: Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Reuters/Facebook.
