Trump Administration Racing to Pay TSA Workers After Airport Security Crisis Reaches Breaking Point
President directs Homeland Security Department to compensate thousands of unpaid airport security officers as travel delays mount nationwide during partial government shutdown.
The Trump administration announced emergency measures on Thursday to pay thousands of Transportation Security Administration workers who have gone without paychecks for weeks as the partial government shutdown stretches past the 40-day mark, creating mounting chaos at airports across the country.
President Trump directed the Department of Homeland Security to use emergency funding authorities to compensate TSA agents, whose missed paychecks have led to a wave of resignations and callouts that have degraded security screening operations at major airports nationwide. The directive came after wait times at security checkpoints at some of the nation's busiest airports exceeded three hours, with travelers at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Chicago O'Hare, and Los Angeles International reporting scenes of near-gridlock during the peak spring travel season.
More than 360 TSA officers have resigned since the shutdown began, according to figures provided by the American Federation of Government Employees, the union representing the workforce. Thousands more have called in sick or simply stopped showing up, the union said, creating staffing shortages that have forced airports to close screening lanes and consolidate checkpoints. At Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, only half of the normal screening lanes were operational on Wednesday, leading to a four-hour backup that caused dozens of passengers to miss their flights.
The legal authority for the emergency payments remains unclear. The administration cited the Economy Act and other executive authorities, but legal experts said those provisions were not designed for mass payroll operations during a funding lapse. Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee called the move an acknowledgment that the shutdown has spiraled out of control and demanded that the president sign the bipartisan funding bill that passed the Senate earlier this week.
The DHS funding dispute centers on a disagreement over immigration enforcement spending. The Senate bill would restore funding for most DHS operations, including TSA and the Coast Guard, while excluding money for ICE and Border Patrol pending further negotiations. House Republican leaders have rejected that approach, insisting that any funding measure must include the full ICE budget. The impasse has left approximately 50,000 DHS employees either furloughed or working without pay.
Airline industry officials have warned that the situation is approaching a crisis point. Airlines for America, the industry trade group, sent a letter to congressional leaders on Wednesday estimating that the shutdown has cost carriers more than $800 million in lost revenue from cancellations, rebookings, and reduced passenger throughput. Several airlines have begun issuing travel advisories urging passengers to arrive at airports at least four hours before domestic flights, an extraordinary recommendation that reflects the severity of the disruption.
The TSA workforce is particularly vulnerable to shutdowns because the agency's officers are among the lowest-paid federal employees, with a median annual salary of approximately $47,000. Many live paycheck to paycheck and cannot absorb extended periods without pay. During the 2018-2019 government shutdown under Trump's first term, similar staffing problems emerged after just two missed paychecks, though the current situation has deteriorated more rapidly due to the tight labor market and the availability of higher-paying private sector jobs.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president is committed to ensuring airport security operations continue and blamed congressional Democrats for refusing to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security. She did not provide a timeline for when the emergency payments would reach workers' bank accounts. Union officials said they were cautiously optimistic but noted that similar promises during previous shutdowns had taken days or weeks to materialize into actual payments.
Originally reported by NYT.