(March 28): US President Donald Trump signed a memo directing Transportation Security Administration (TSA) personnel to be paid, a bid to alleviate disruptions at US airports as Congress battles over how to end the ongoing partial government shutdown.
The memo, which could lead to paychecks for TSA workers as soon as Monday, eased the sharpest pain point for lawmakers fighting over immigration enforcement. It also effectively killed momentum in Congress towards a funding deal for the Department of Homeland Security.
Trump’s Friday memo stated that 50,000 transportation officers who work security at airports are not being paid because of the funding lapse at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), prompting almost 500 to leave their positions, with thousands more calling in sick.
“As the president of the United States, I have determined that these circumstances constitute an emergency situation compromising the nation’s security,” Trump said, adding that the absences “unacceptably heighten the risk of security vulnerabilities within our domestic travel system” and have “negatively impacted countless Americans”.
The memo would cover backpay and paychecks going forward, according to the Office of Management and Budget. It came as the House prepared to vote late on Friday on a spending package that funds the department — the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — until May 22, setting up a clash with Senate Democrats who have said such a measure is “dead on arrival” without new policies to restrict Trump’s immigration crackdown.
House Republicans earlier rejected bipartisan Senate legislation to fund most of the DHS except funding for ICE and Border Patrol. The Senate approved that measure around 3am on Friday.
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“This gambit that was done last night is a joke,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters at the Capitol. He said Trump supports the House move.
Johnson was able to unite his members behind the Republican measure, which passed on a 213 to 203 vote. There is no sign yet that the Senate plans to return to Washington before the end of its two-week recess to vote on this stopgap.
With the memo now signed, a DHS spokesperson said that TSA had immediately begun the process of paying the workforce.
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Still, it’s unclear how the system will work. The memo does not cite the specific source of funding. The president may also lack the legal authority to unilaterally authorise pay; federal law gives Congress the power of the purse.
Trump’s memo directed the DHS and the White House budget office to use funds that have a “reasonable and logical nexus” to agency operations to provide employees who have worked without pay “with the compensation and benefits that would have accrued to them if not for” the shutdown. The funding lapse continues to snarl lines at airports across the country.
“Once regular funding for the TSA has been restored, every effort should be made, as authorised by law, to adjust applicable funding accounts within the DHS to ensure the continuation of DHS operations and activities consistent with planned expenditures prior to the lapse,” Trump wrote in the memo.
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