Trump Orders TSA Back Pay as DHS Shutdown Enters New Week With No Funding Deal in Sight
The president directed the Department of Homeland Security to resume compensating TSA officers beginning Monday, but the congressional impasse between House Republicans and Senate Democrats over a DHS funding bill remained unresolved.
President Trump ordered the Department of Homeland Security on Sunday to immediately resume compensation for Transportation Security Administration workers, directing that back pay owed to TSA officers during the partial government shutdown be disbursed beginning Monday, March 30. The announcement came as House Republicans and Senate Democrats continued to trade competing short-term funding bills, with no resolution in sight on the underlying disagreement over DHS appropriations.
TSA workers, who are classified as federal employees and subject to the Antideficiency Act, have been reporting to work without pay since the DHS funding lapse began. Unlike some other government shutdowns, this one did not shutter the entire federal government — most agencies are operating under previously passed appropriations — but DHS has been left unfunded, leaving tens of thousands of transportation security officers, Customs and Border Protection agents, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel in legal and financial limbo.
The human toll has been substantial. TSA officers at major airports including O'Hare, Los Angeles International, and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta reported calling out sick at elevated rates during the shutdown's second and third weeks, leading to the extended security screening delays that have frustrated travelers nationwide. Some officers took second jobs to cover bills; union representatives described members making impossible choices between rent payments and the obligation to report for federal duty.
On Capitol Hill, the path to a resolution remains blocked. The House passed a short-term Republican stopgap funding bill on Friday that would fund DHS through mid-May at current levels. But the Senate had already passed a different bill — a bipartisan deal with slightly different funding contours and a longer extension period — that House Republicans rejected without a vote. Democrats in both chambers blamed House Republicans for prolonging the crisis by refusing to accept the Senate's bipartisan framework.
"This shutdown is self-inflicted," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a floor statement Sunday. "The Senate sent the House a bipartisan solution weeks ago. House Republicans chose chaos."
House Speaker Mike Johnson, appearing on Fox News Sunday, defended the House's position as a matter of fiscal responsibility and argued that the Senate's bill contained provisions unacceptable to the conservative caucus. He did not specify a timeline for a resolution but said he expected "movement" this week.
The partial shutdown has created a peculiar political dynamic for the Trump administration. The president has simultaneously criticized the shutdown as harmful to national security — citing the TSA pay situation specifically — while declining to publicly pressure House Republicans to accept the Senate's bipartisan deal. White House legislative affairs officials have been in contact with both chambers, but have not publicly endorsed either version of the stopgap bill.
For airports, the immediate practical effect of Trump's back pay order is uncertain. While TSA officers will begin receiving compensation again, union officials said it could take time for morale and staffing levels to recover. "Paying people what they're owed is the bare minimum," said Randy Hargrove, a spokesperson for the American Federation of Government Employees. "The damage to the workforce from weeks of unpaid service won't be fixed overnight."
Originally reported by CNN.