I don’t know why it isn’t being asked by every journalist. If DHS could pay ICE and CBP during this “shutdown” why not TSA?
As talks to end the partial government shutdown broke down on Capitol Hill Thursday evening, Trump posted on Truth Social that he was “going to sign an Order instructing the Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, to immediately pay our TSA Agents in order to address this Emergency Situation.”
Hours later, the Senate moved to fund most of the department, including TSA, though not immigration enforcement and border patrol. But House Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday derided that measure as “a joke” and said he would put forth his own short-term spending bill that would fully fund the agency for eight weeks. Johnson noted Trump’s move would pay the TSA, and he asserted he had the president’s support.
Here’s what we currently know:
Where is the money coming from?
Two people familiar with the plans said DHS planned to use funding from the “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act, Trump’s sweeping domestic policy agenda package that he signed last summer. The executive action didn’t specify that, instead more broadly calling for the use of money with “a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations.”
The “big, beautiful bill” provided DHS with $10 billion that can be used to support the agency’s mission to safeguard US borders, Bobby Kogan, senior director of federal budget policy at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, told CNN. He suspects the administration will tap into this pot of money to fund TSA employees’ pay — even though TSA is not mentioned anywhere in the legislation.
Notably, the bill gives the DHS secretary the power to deem what activities support safeguarding the border, said Rachel Snyderman, managing director of the economic program at the Bipartisan Policy Center. The provision doesn’t specify that the funds should be used by a particular division within DHS.
DHS is using other money from the package to pay certain employees during the shutdown. The package provided DHS with a $165 billion infusion, funneling $75 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and $64 billion to Customs and Border Protection.
Paychecks for sworn law enforcement officers in ICE, CBP and the US Secret Service, as well as for US Coast Guard military personnel, are currently being funded by the bill, according to a senior administration official. Other positions that work on the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement and border security priorities, such as technology specialists and attorneys, are also being paid during the shutdown through the legislation, the official said.
In the executive action, Trump said any moves should follow the federal law that says, “Appropriations shall be applied only to the objects for which the appropriations were made except as otherwise provided by law.”
Still, Kogan said he didn’t think the maneuver was legal. But “that’s not going to stop them,” he added.
He pointed out that the administration used Pentagon research and development funds to pay the military during the fall shutdown.
Why did Trump wait so long?
That’s the key question.
“My question is: If he can do it, why didn’t he do it before?” Max Stier, CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan group that focuses on improving the federal government, told CNN. “This has been a problem for over a month now.”
The situation at certain airports, particularly in Atlanta and Houston, has become increasingly dire in recent weeks. Travelers have been forced to wait for hours to go through TSA security checkpoints, with the lines stretching outside the terminals.
Earlier this week, Trump ordered ICE agents be deployed at 14 major airports to assist TSA agents.
In other words, Trump could have usurped the law as he’s done in dozens of other instances to further his agenda but he didn’t do it this time because he thought it would hurt Democrats if the American people (and TSA) suffered. He only did it after the Senate agreed 100-0 go ahead and fund TSA and the Democrats and many Republicans in the House were ready to sign on when a few right wing extremists and the Speaker of the House refused.
The media need to make this clear to the American people.