Trump signs order to pay TSA employees after DHS shutdown fight

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President Donald Trump signed an executive action on Friday directing payments to Transportation Security Administration employees after a push to end the Department of Homeland Security shutdown broke down in Congress. Trump said he authorized the payments with the goal of easing long security lines at many of the nation’s busiest airports, and he framed the move as necessary because he determined the situation constituted “an emergency situation compromising the Nation’s security.”

Trump said the payments would be funded using “funds that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations.” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, in a statement Friday, said TSA workers “should begin seeing paychecks as early as Monday.” While the executive action could help reduce disruptions for air travelers, it did not resolve the shutdown itself, which had left airports facing delays and financial strain on federal workers.

The executive action landed as lawmakers left Washington for a two-week recess, with the House and Senate ending the week by passing different bills that created a new impasse over DHS funding. The shutdown of Homeland Security was set to reach 44 days on Sunday, eclipsing the previous record 43-day shutdown last fall that had affected the entire federal government.

In the House, Speaker Mike Johnson accused Democrats of “playing a dangerous game” after the Senate passed a funding deal early Friday, and he quickly directed the chamber to move away from that approach. After a lengthy conference call, Johnson said the Senate’s action was “a joke” and announced the House would take a different route.

The House on Friday night passed a bill to fund the entire department through May 22 by a 213-203 vote. Johnson said he spoke with Trump about the House plan and that Trump supported it. House Republicans were also critical of what they said was missing in the Senate compromise: the Senate measure did not fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, while Democrats had refused to provide that funding without changes to immigration enforcement practices.

Democrats, according to the AP report, resisted funding ICE and Border Patrol and instead pressed for requirements that agents wear identification, remove face masks, and avoid raids around sensitive places such as schools and churches. The report also said Democrats pushed for an end to administrative warrants, calling for judges to sign off before agents search homes or other private spaces, with Mullin saying he was open to considering those changes.

Senators described their own compromise as one reached after working through the night, including funding for much of Homeland Security such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard, and TSA. But the Senate approach did not meet objections from conservative Republicans who said it created a precedent for funding some parts of Homeland Security while leaving out others. Sen. Eric Schmitt said, “We will fully fund ICE. That is what this fight is about,” adding that “The border is closing. The next task is deportation.”

The AP report also described a leadership rift after the rejection of the Senate deal, including differences between House Speaker Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who had worked alongside Johnson on Trump’s agenda. It said Thune needed 60 votes to break a filibuster in a Senate divided 53-47, and that after negotiations extending more than a week, the two sides agreed early Friday to fund most of Homeland Security except for ICE and parts of Customs and Border Protection. The Senate approved that deal by voice vote with no objections just after 2 a.m., and Thune said after questions that he and Johnson had texted, while he also said he did not know what the House would do.

MSI previously reported that the TSA workforce disruption was worsening as the DHS shutdown dragged on, with airport security delays linked to pay problems and calls for TSA closures at multiple locations. The AP report said DHS data showed callout rates at more than 40% at multiple airports, and it said nearly 500 of the agency’s nearly 50,000 transportation security officers had quit during the shutdown. It also said that nationwide on Thursday, more than 11.8% of scheduled TSA employees missed work, totaling more than 3,450 callouts.