Trump orders pay for TSA workers as House Republicans reject Senate homeland security funding bill

President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive action to pay Transportation Security Administration employees, stepping in after a congressional effort to do the same stalled. The move is aimed at easing long security lines at many of the country's busiest airports.

In the memo authorizing the payments, Trump said "America's air travel system has reached its breaking point" and that he had determined the circumstances were "an emergency situation compromising the Nation's security." He said the administration would draw on "funds that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations." Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement that TSA workers "should begin seeing paychecks as early as Monday."

A senior administration official, speaking anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said Thursday night that the money would come from the tax bill Trump signed last year. The official compared the approach to steps Trump took during an earlier shutdown to pay troops. The White House had also considered declaring a national emergency to pay the agents, an option described as politically and legally fraught.

The order came after House Republicans rejected a bill the Senate passed early Friday to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security. The department's funding lapse is now in its 42nd day. House Speaker Mike Johnson called the Senate effort "a joke" and said House Republicans would instead try to pass a measure funding the whole department at current levels through May 22. He said Trump had told him he supports that plan.

House Republicans are angry that the Senate bill leaves out Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. Democrats had refused to fund those agencies without changes to immigration enforcement practices. The Senate package would fund the rest of the department, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard and TSA. Democrats blocked more money for ICE and Border Patrol but did not win the new limits on enforcement they wanted.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said the 60-day stopgap under consideration in the House would be "dead on arrival in the Senate." Senators have already left town, and it is unclear whether the House measure would even pass. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the Senate deal would let lawmakers "get at least a lot of the government opened up again," while acknowledging more work remained. Immigration enforcement has largely continued during the shutdown because last year's tax cuts law provided billions in extra funds to DHS, including $75 billion for ICE operations.

Democrats have demanded that federal agents wear identification, remove face masks and avoid raids near schools, churches and other sensitive places. They also want an end to administrative warrants, with judges required to approve searches of homes or private spaces, which Mullin has said he is open to considering. Their push followed the deaths of two Americans protesting the enforcement actions in Minneapolis. Conservative Republicans, meanwhile, want ICE fully funded. Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., said, "We will fully fund ICE. That is what this fight is about."

The shutdown has caused travel delays and warnings of airport closures as unpaid TSA workers stop reporting for duty. Multiple airports have seen callout rates above 40%, and nearly 500 of the agency's nearly 50,000 transportation security officers have quit. On Wednesday, more than 11% of scheduled TSA employees, over 3,120 people, missed work, according to DHS.

Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said the union is grateful the workers will be paid but urged Congress to stay in session and pass a deal that funds DHS and pays all its workers. At George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, traveler Melissa Gates said she would miss her flight to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, after waiting more than 2½ hours without reaching the checkpoint. "I should have just driven, right?" she said.