After teasing the idea in a Truth Social post on Thursday, President Trump issued a memorandum today directing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary to pay TSA employees during the ongoing partial government shutdown.
Trump said that the delays at airports caused by the ongoing partial shutdown constitute an “emergency situation compromising the Nation’s security” that forced him to take action to pay TSA officers “who are now performing their critical public safety responsibilities without knowing whether they will be able to buy food for their families or pay their rent.”
The memo states:
I hereby direct the Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, to use funds that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations to provide TSA employees with the compensation and benefits that would have accrued to them if not for the Democrat-led DHS shutdown, consistent with applicable law, including 31 U.S.C. 1301(a).
Once regular funding for TSA has been restored, every effort should be made, as authorized by law, to adjust applicable funding accounts within DHS to ensure the continuation of DHS operations and activities consistent with planned expenditures prior to the lapse.
DHS said in a statement, “TSA officers should begin seeing paychecks as early as Monday, March 30. TSA is grateful to the President and Secretary for their leadership to put money back into the pockets of TSA employees who worked without pay during the ongoing Democrat DHS shutdown.”
Update: According to The Guardian, TSA employees received back pay on Monday, March 30. Lauren Bis, the acting assistant secretary of public affairs at the DHS, told The Guardian that most TSA employees had received at least two full retroactive paychecks and that DHS was “working aggressively” to issue a third half-paycheck owed to TSA employees.
Despite negotiating this week to try to resolve the impasse over DHS funding, Congress failed to pass a finalized spending bill before departing Washington for Easter recess.
