The formal order to pay TSA staff came out Friday, as a Senate-passed DHS funding deal appeared poised to fall apart in the House amid GOP opposition.
Justin Doubleday@jdoubledayWFED
March 27, 2026 3:27 pm
2 min read
President Donald Trump on Friday directed the Department of Homeland Security to re-direct funding to pay Transportation Security Administration employees, even as other DHS staff continue to go without pay during the partial government shutdown.
Trump directed DHS 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.”
DHS said TSA staff would begin receiving paychecks “as early as” March 30.
The order does not specify an exact source of the funds. But CBS News, citing a senior administration official, reported that DHS would use funding from last summer’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act to pay TSA employees.
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“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,” Trump wrote.
The formal order came out Friday afternoon, as a Senate-passed DHS funding deal appeared poised to fall apart in the House amid GOP opposition.
Roughly 60,000 TSA staff are going without pay during the shutdown, including 47,000 transportation security officers. Nearly 500 transportation security officers have quit since the shutdown began in February, while call-out rates have increased to 11% nationwide, leading to long security screening lines at some airports.
TSA employees missed their third paycheck of the partial government shutdown on Friday. Union representatives for TSA employees have warned their colleagues are reaching a “breaking point” amid the second lengthy government shutdown in six months.
A DHS spokesperson said that “at the direction of President Trump and the Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, TSA has immediately begun the process of paying its workforce.”
“TSA officers should begin seeing paychecks as early as Monday, March 30,” the spokesperson added. “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.”
House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) argued the funding directive shows the Trump administration “made the conscious decision” not to pay TSA workers for 41 days.
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“I am glad that this administration has finally chosen to pay these workers, after choosing not to for 41 days,” DeLauro said. “The administration must provide an explanation as to what funding it is using to pay these workers after falsely claiming it could not do so.”
Meanwhile, other DHS staff, including those at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, will continue to work without pay unless Congress salvages a DHS funding deal.
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