The long security lines at some airports started to shrink over the weekend as Transportation Security Agency officers expected to be paid as soon as Monday after going more than a month without a paycheck.
T.S.A. officers have continued to work without pay since Feb. 14, during a partial government shutdown that has held up the Department of Homeland Security’s funding. As the weeks have stretched on, airport security staff members have increasingly called out of work, setting a record on Friday for the number of T.S.A. employees calling out. About 500 agents have quit since the shutdown began. Last week, the Trump administration sent in Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to help.
House Republicans rejected on Friday a bipartisan Senate deal to end the shutdown for much of D.H.S., including the airport agents.
While that impasse continued, President Trump signed an order on Friday to tap a different, previously approved source of funds to pay T.S.A. officers.
ICE agents could still remain at airports until operations return to normal.
Here’s what we know about the impact of the partial D.H.S. shutdown on U.S. airports.
Passengers have waited hours in security lines at some major airports.
Travelers flying across the country have waited in security lines so long at some airports that they have snaked through terminals and parking lots as checkpoints closed down because of a shortage of T.S.A. officers. Passengers in Houston, New York and Atlanta have waited for hours to be screened.
Two government shutdowns in less than a year have frustrated T.S.A. workers, who are expected to continue working but must wait to get paid until Congress appropriates funds.
President Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota led to this recent shutdown.
This recent funding lapse, which is the longest partial shutdown on record, affects only agencies under D.H.S., which include the T.S.A. The Homeland Security Department was removed from a broader budget bill as Democrats and Republicans tried to work out a separate compromise with Mr. Trump on the administration’s immigration crackdown, which had led to the killing of two Americans by federal immigration agents in Minnesota.
T.S.A. officers also went unpaid during the broad government shutdown in October, which also broke records when the impasse lasted 42 days.
Hundreds of T.S.A. officers have quit.
About 50,000 T.S.A. officers have worked without pay since the shutdown began in February. More than 500 employees have quit, and thousands of others continued to call out of work as they struggled to afford basic needs to even make it to their shifts.
On Friday, more than 3,560 T.S.A. officers, or about 12 percent of the agency’s work force, did not show up to work. At some airports, the callout rate was about 40 percent. The shortage has come during the busy spring break travel season.
Even though officers would be paid for their time after the funding lapse ended, T.S.A. union leaders said that many employees were still coping with the financial effects of October’s government shutdown. Many people took on credit card interest, late fees and bank withdrawal fees.
With rising gas prices from the war between the United States and Iran, T.S.A. officers are finding it costly to commute to work, union leaders said. Some agents have had to take on second jobs and cannot show up for their scheduled shifts at airport security checkpoints.
ICE is taking on some T.S.A. tasks.
Last week, the Trump administration said that ICE agents would be deployed to airports to help with the shortage of T.S.A. officers. For the first few days, the agents were seen walking around airports, managing lines and handing out water bottles to passengers.
But at some airports on Wednesday, the responsibilities of federal immigration agents expanded. ICE agents were seen training with T.S.A. officers, checking travel documents and directing passengers to load their luggage onto conveyor belts leading to scanners.
On Sunday, Mr. Trump’s top border official, Tom Homan, said that it was unclear how many T.S.A. officers would return to work after suffering from the costly effects of two of the longest government shutdowns in history. He said that ICE agents would most likely remain in airports until operations returned to normal.
T.S.A. officers may get paid Monday.
On Friday, Mr. Trump signed an executive order for T.S.A. employees to receive a paycheck as soon as Monday, the first time they would be paid in more than a month.
The administration was expected to use funds provided to D.H.S. last summer as part of the president’s big tax cut and domestic policy law. No executive order, emergency or otherwise, would be required for access to those funds.
Mr. Trump swooped in as Republicans in the House and Senate reached an impasse over the D.H.S. funding lapse. Although the executive order would pay T.S.A. workers, employees working in other divisions of the department, like the Federal Emergency Management Agency, would have to continue working without pay.
Christina Morales is a national reporter for The Times.
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