TSA Agents May Receive Pay as Early as Monday Following Trump Directive, DHS Says

(SeaPRwire) –   Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents who have been working without pay during the ongoing partial government shutdown may receive their wages as early as Monday, following an order from President Donald Trump, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed to TIME.

“Today, at the direction of President Trump and the Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, TSA has immediately begun the process of paying its workforce,” a DHS spokesperson stated to TIME on Friday. “TSA officers should begin seeing paychecks as early as Monday, March 30.”

The spokesperson characterized the current shutdown as an “emergency” and a “crisis.”

“TSA officers are now losing their homes and cars, struggling to put food on the table, and are experiencing all-around financial catastrophe because of this extended shutdown, the 3rd they’ve experienced in just 6 months,” the spokesperson added. “Travelers are facing record breaking wait times stretching hours and hours long causing missed flights, unnecessary delays, and booking headaches.”

In a presidential memorandum released on Friday, Trump declared that he has “determined that these circumstances constitute an emergency situation compromising the Nation’s security,” and consequently directed Mullin and Russell Vought, 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 shutdown.

Funding for DHS, which encompasses TSA, expired on February 14, amidst a disagreement between Democrats and Republicans concerning immigration enforcement. The shutdown has caused significant disruption to air travel this month. TSA agents are classified as essential workers and are therefore required to work during a shutdown, even without compensation. Many TSA employees have had to take on additional jobs to cover their expenses, leading to a substantial number of call-outs from work at various airports in recent weeks. Consequently, airports nationwide have experienced staffing shortages among TSA officers, resulting in extended security lines.

On Friday, it appeared that Congress might be nearing an agreement to fund TSA and most of DHS, after the Senate approved a bill that would achieve this while excluding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and certain parts of Customs and Border Protection from receiving funding. However, later on Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson dismissed the bill, referring to it as a “joke.”