Trump Orders Pay for TSA Amid Airport Delays
Trump signed an executive order Friday to have DHS pay TSA officers, who have worked without pay since Feb. 14, as airports face hourslong security lines and staffing shortfalls.
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Overview
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday instructing the Homeland Security secretary to pay Transportation Security Administration officers, who could receive their first full paychecks in more than six weeks as soon as Monday.
TSA personnel have worked without pay since Feb. 14, and several thousand missing shifts on a given day helped cause hourslong waits and closed express lanes at airports including Houston, Atlanta, New Orleans and New York, officials said.
House Republicans rejected a Senate bill early Friday to fund most of DHS, and Speaker Mike Johnson said he would pursue a stopgap funding bill for all of DHS through May 22.
Nationwide on Thursday more than 11.8% of TSA employees on the schedule missed work, and DHS said nearly 500 of the agency’s nearly 50,000 officers have quit since the shutdown started.
Officials, union leaders and travel experts warned that staffing gaps—including some airports with callout rates of 40% and a four- to six-month training requirement for new hires—could keep long security lines in place into next week or longer.
Analysis
Center-leaning sources appear neutral: they report facts and multiple viewpoints without loaded language. Sources mix official data (DHS callout and quit rates), government statements (TSA acting administrator), travel experts (Eric Rosen, Sheldon Jacobson) and union/former-worker voices (Johnny Jones, Caleb Harmon-Marshall), balancing operational details with human impacts.
FAQ
The DHS shutdown, now in its sixth week, stems from a congressional standoff where Democrats demand changes to immigration enforcement policies, prioritizing them over funding amid incidents like the killing of two U.S. citizens by federal agents in Minnesota.
The order directs the DHS Secretary, in coordination with the OMB Director, to use funds with a reasonable nexus to TSA operations to provide compensation and benefits to over 60,000 TSA employees, including 50,000 security officers, with paychecks possibly starting as early as Monday.
TSA staffing shortfalls, with over 11.8% absences and nearly 500 quits, have caused hourslong security lines, closed express lanes, and chaos at airports like Houston, Atlanta, New Orleans, and New York; some airports saw 40% callout rates.
House Republicans rejected a Senate bill to fund most of DHS and plan a stopgap funding bill through May 22; earlier deals collapsed amid Democratic demands on immigration enforcement.
Yes, thousands of other DHS employees remain unpaid, while ICE agents have been deployed to assist at some airports; the shutdown affects the entire department since mid-February.
