Trump Orders Emergency Pay for TSA Officers Amid Congressional Stalemate

On the shutdown's 41st day, TSA workers approached a second missed paycheck Friday, with thousands refusing to show up for work. Into that crisis, President Trump posted a blunt announcement on Truth Social: "I am going to sign an Order instructing the Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, to immediately pay our TSA Agents in order to address this Emergency Situation, and to quickly stop the Democrat Chaos at the Airports."

Multiple airports are experiencing greater than 40% callout rates, and nearly 500 of TSA's nearly 50,000 transportation security officers have quit during the shutdown. Nationwide on Wednesday, more than 11% of TSA employees on the schedule missed work, according to DHS — more than 3,120 callouts. The human toll behind those numbers has been stark: acting TSA Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill told a House hearing that some officers are "sleeping in their cars, selling their blood and plasma, and taking on second jobs to make ends meet," while TSA officers have experienced a more than 500% increase in the frequency of assaults since the shutdown began.

McNeill said the crisis has produced "the highest wait times in TSA history, with some wait times greater than four and a half hours," and warned that TSA may be forced to close smaller airports if callout rates keep rising. At George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Melissa Gates said she would not make her flight to Baton Rouge after waiting more than two and a half hours without reaching the security checkpoint, with no other flights available until Friday.

Trump did not say what legal authority he intends to use to restart pay. TSA agents have gone without pay because appropriations for DHS lapsed in February. The White House is also considering declaring a national emergency to pay TSA workers, a move that would be politically fraught and almost certain to face legal challenges. Trump had already escalated before the order announcement: earlier this week the Trump administration sent ICE agents to airports to assist TSA, and on Wednesday Trump suggested he may also deploy National Guard members.

The deployment of immigration enforcement officers drew immediate pushback. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, called the airport security plan a "Bad idea" and urged a more direct resolution: "What we need to do is, we need to get the DHS issues resolved, we need to get the TSA agents paid. Do you really want to have even additional tensions on top of what we are already facing?"

The funding disparity within DHS has sharpened the political tension. Trump's big tax cuts bill funneled $75 billion to ICE operations, ensuring that money continued flowing for his immigration and deportation agenda even with the funding shutdown — meaning ICE officers are still being paid. TSA screeners, whose paychecks depend on annual congressional appropriations that have lapsed, are not. DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis put the consequence plainly: "This pointless, reckless shutdown of our homeland security workforce has caused more than 400 TSA officers to quit and thousands to call out from work because they are not able to afford gas, childcare, food, or rent."

Democrats have withheld their support for funding the agency since February, not long after federal agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis during an immigration crackdown, demanding that immigration agents acquire judicial warrants before entering private property and that the use of masks be banned. Republicans roundly rejected a Senate Democratic counteroffer on Wednesday that included some of those proposals.

With pressure mounting, the White House floated the extraordinary move of invoking a national emergency to pay TSA workers while senators reviewed a "last and final" offer to end the funding impasse. Senate Majority Leader John Thune declared "Enough is enough" as he presented the offer to Democrats, while senators prepared to cancel spring break and stay through the weekend to force a resolution. By Friday, March 27, TSA employees will have worked nearly $1 billion in payroll that has not been paid in a timely manner.

TSA Deputy Administrator Adam Stahl warned that the damage will be "long-standing" even after Congress acts, noting particular concern about the FIFA World Cup beginning June 11, which is expected to bring six to ten million additional travelers through U.S. airports on top of an already busy summer travel season. With a legislative deal still out of reach and Trump's emergency order lacking a specified legal basis, the question of who pays — and how — remained unanswered as the Senate prepared for another late night.