Thousands of Transportation Security Administration workers are set to be paid soon, potentially easing lengthy security lines that have hampered travelers at airports across the country.
President Trump on Friday ordered the Department of Homeland Security to pay T.S.A. employees, a move that would lessen the impact of weeks of airport security officers showing up to work without pay amid a partial government shutdown. Hundreds of T.S.A. officers have quit and absence rates have spiked at major airports, creating hourslong lines and missed flights for travelers.
Here’s what we know about paychecks for T.S.A. officers and other D.H.S. employees.
When will T.S.A. officers be paid?
About 50,000 T.S.A. officers should begin receiving paychecks as soon as Monday, the Department of Homeland Security said on Friday.
The announcement comes after Mr. Trump signed a presidential memorandum directing the department to find the funds to pay T.S.A. employees. He ordered the department to use funds that have a “reasonable and logical nexus to T.S.A. operations” to pay T.S.A. employees the compensation and benefits they would have earned since the partial shutdown began on Feb. 14.
A spokeswoman for the Office of Management and Budget said Friday that they would source the funds from money approved as part of the president’s tax package that Congress passed last year, which had included billions for immigration enforcement. But the White House has not specified the account.
When might airport lines ease?
T.S.A. workers who have been calling out of work because of child care and other challenges stemming from a lack of pay are likely to return soon once they get paid. But there is a bigger challenge: More than 450 T.S.A. officers have quit since Feb. 14, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
It is unclear how long it could take for the agency to staff back up, but its leaders have recently warned about the operational challenges that come with losing employees.
During the record 43-day government shutdown last fall, the agency had a spike in resignations with about 1,110 officers quitting, Ha Nguyen McNeill, the T.S.A. acting administrator, told lawmakers this week. The current funding lapse started barely three months after last fall’s shutdown ended, during which many T.S.A. employees took on side jobs to cover basic living expenses.
Additionally, neither Mr. Trump nor D.H.S. officials have indicated if T.S.A.workers will get paid in two weeks if the shutdown continues.
Which DHS employees are not receiving pay?
The decision does not help thousands of other employees at the Homeland Security Department who have continued to work without pay for weeks. That’s because employees deemed “essential” are required to report to work even during a lapse in funding.
Earlier this week, the D.H.S. said that about 100,000 department employees were working without pay. That included employees at agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which leads the federal response to natural disasters, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which helps protect the country’s election system, power grids and water utilities.
Despite the focus on immigration, the partial shutdown has had little impact on enforcement operations because Republicans in Congress approved more than $170 billion for Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda last year. That has allowed the department to continue paying law enforcement officers at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and the Secret Service. All U.S. Coast Guard military personnel have also continued to be paid.
Other employees that work closely with law enforcement have continued to be paid, such as information technology specialists supporting field operations. But many other civilian employees at those agencies have missed paychecks.
When could the partial shutdown end?
As of Friday evening, the partial shutdown still had no end in sight.
The department’s funding lapse is the result of a deep partisan divide over immigration enforcement. Lawmakers have deadlocked on an agreement to fully fund the Homeland Security Department, which Democrats have refused to do without imposing restrictions on immigration agents they say have operated with impunity. Republicans have rejected their demands and cast them as excessive.
Senators passed a bill on Friday morning that would fund most of D.H.S. but omit money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, two immigration enforcement agencies at the heart of Mr. Trump’s deportation drive.
But House Republicans swiftly rejected the Senate-passed deal, saying it would threaten immigration enforcement and criticizing it for aligning with Democratic positions to fund other parts of the department that do not carry out immigration enforcement.
Tony Romm contributed reporting.
Madeleine Ngo covers immigration and economic policy for The Times.
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