Markwayne Mullin, the homeland security secretary, said on Tuesday that his department would run out of money to pay employees the first week of May if Congress failed to reach a deal to reopen the department.
“The money is going extremely fast,” Mr. Mullin said during an interview with “Fox & Friends.” “The president can’t do another executive order for us to use money, because there’s no more money there.”
Missed paychecks could renew chaos at airports as lawmakers remain divided over a deal to end the two-month shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. The threat of them also ramps up political pressure on Congress to unlock funding, which had eased after President Trump signed memos calling on his administration to use existing money to pay all department employees, including Transportation Security Administration officers.
Mr. Mullin said the money to fund paychecks was drawn from a portion of Mr. Trump’s signature domestic policy bill, which gave the department more than $170 billion over four years to carry out the president’s immigration crackdown. But he said that payroll costs were amounting to more than $1.6 billion every two weeks, and that available funding for salaries would dry up after this month.
The dysfunction has frustrated many department employees who have been dealing with financial uncertainty since the shutdown began. More than 90 percent of the department’s roughly 260,000 workers are considered essential, meaning that most employees continue to work without pay.
The impact of missed paychecks was most visible at airports last month, as hundreds of T.S.A. officers quit and thousands called out of work. The staffing crisis, which led to hourslong security lines at some airports and missed flights, alleviated after T.S.A. employees began receiving back pay in late March.
Johnny Jones, the secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Government Employees T.S.A. Council 100 union, said that many workers were still struggling to recover and pay for late fees they incurred after not making their rent or credit card payments on time. He said that missed paychecks next month could again lead to disruptions at airports.
“You will find people not being able to come to work,” Mr. Jones said.
Though congressional Republicans agreed to pass a spending bill that would fund nearly all of the department except for its immigration enforcement operations, that legislation remains stalled in the House, where conservative lawmakers have refused to advance it.
As part of their deal, Republicans committed to moving ahead with a second measure to fund the agencies carrying out Mr. Trump’s crackdown, using the reconciliation process for budget-related legislation and shielding it from a Democratic filibuster.
Some House Republicans have insisted that they cannot pass the homeland security spending bill without seeing meaningful progress toward the reconciliation measure that would fund immigration enforcement.
Though the Senate took a crucial first step toward that effort on Tuesday, it was unclear whether it would be enough to sway House Republican holdouts. Some of them have suggested they will not vote to fund the rest of the Department of Homeland Security until the reconciliation process, which could take weeks, is complete.
Department leaders have blamed Democrats for refusing to fully fund the agency without new restrictions on immigration agents, including barring them from wearing masks during enforcement operations and requiring them to obtain judicial warrants to enter private homes.
The shutdown has had few implications for Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown because the department has used the billions in funding from the president’s domestic policy bill to fund operations and continue paying law enforcement officers. But Mr. Mullin said on Tuesday that the shutdown had still made it harder for the department to carry out its mission.
Although immigration enforcement has attracted the most attention, the department includes more than a dozen agencies with a range of responsibilities, including disaster relief response and counterterrorism efforts.
A department spokesperson said that more than 780 T.S.A. officers had quit and that the agency could not deploy new checkpoint screening technology without new funding. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has postponed critical training for about 45,000 students per week, including firefighters and emergency medical workers.
The shutdown has also disrupted basic department necessities, such as contracts for cybertechnology and software subscriptions.
“Certain D.H.S. offices have run out” of supplies, including paper clips and staples, “and are scrounging for toner and ink,” the spokesperson said.
Tom Homan, the White House border czar, said on Fox News last week that travel cards were not being paid and that some officers had maxed out their credit cards because of the department’s shutdown.
“It’s really putting a dent in how we’re enforcing laws,” Mr. Homan said.
Madeleine Ngo covers immigration and economic policy for The Times.
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