President Trump said on Thursday that he would sign an emergency order to pay Transportation Security Administration agents and address growing wait times at airports during a weekslong shutdown of the Homeland Security Department.
“I am using my authorities under the law to protect our great country, as I always will do,” Mr. Trump said in a social media post, adding, “I am going to sign an order instructing the Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, to immediately pay our TSA Agents.”
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about where the money was coming from, and what authority Mr. Trump would use to spend it.
It is also unclear why Mr. Trump would wait more than five weeks to pay federal employees during the partial government shutdown if he already had the authority to do so. As lawmakers struggled to come up with a deal to fund Homeland Security, Mr. Trump and agency officials repeatedly blamed Democratic lawmakers for depriving T.S.A. agents of their pay.
With long lines at airports ahead of a prime spring travel weekend, and with lawmakers eager to compromise ahead of a planned two-week recess, Democrats and Republicans spent the day haggling over an elusive deal amid disputes over Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown. They continued to trade proposals, at times in public in the Senate chamber, to end a weekslong impasse.
But even as the pace of negotiations picked up, there was still no sign of a deal by Thursday evening, which Mr. Trump acknowledged in a social media post announcing his plan.
Chris Cameron is a Times reporter covering Washington, focusing on breaking news and the Trump administration.
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