Donald Trump announced on Thursday he will sign an order instructing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to pay Transportation Security Administration agents immediately.
“I am 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, and to quickly stop the Democrat Chaos at the Airports,” Trump wrote on social media. “I want to thank our hardworking TSA Agents and also, ICE, for the incredible help they have given us at the Airports.”
The US president did not state where the funding to pay the agents would come from.
TSA agents have gone without pay for more than a month due to a partial shutdown of the DHS, leading to nationwide staffing shortages and long lines at airports across the US that have severely affected travelers. Passengers have reported missing flights as they have waited for hours in queues in what the acting TSA head has described as the “highest wait times in TSA history”. Amid mounting frustrations over delays, the Trump administration this week deployed US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to airports in what Trump said was an effort to assist the TSA.
Almost 500 TSA officers have quit since last month, when Congress did not pass a bill to fund the US Department of Homeland Security for the fiscal year.
Democrats have demanded that ICE face accountability for violence during its operations, including the killings of US citizens, Alex Pretti and Renee Good, in Minneapolis, and said they would not fund the DHS without reforms.
The impasse has had a devastating impact on TSA employees, who by Friday were expected to have missed $1bn in paychecks, the agency’s acting head, Ha Nguyen McNeill, told Congress this week.
“Many in our workforce have missed bill payments, received eviction notices, had their cars repossessed and utilities shut off, lost their childcare, defaulted on loans, damaged their credit line, and drained their retirement savings,” she said. “Some are sleeping in their cars, selling their blood and plasma, and taking on second jobs to make ends meet.”
While Republicans and Democrats have been in negotiations to reach an agreement to end the shutdown, Trump has suggested he would refuse to sign any legislation unless Democrats support the Save America Act. The proposed bill would make changes to voter registration rules that advocates say would make it harder to vote, including requiring voters to provide proof of citizenship upon registering and to show identification at the polls.
The announcement from Trump came as the Senate failed to pass funding for the seventh time on Thursday evening. The Senate majority leader, John Thune, told reporters the development would take “the immediate pressure off but it’s a short-term solution”.
Other Republicans praised the news, with Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming saying that Trump is “doing absolutely the right thing”, while Lindsey Graham said: “You’re saving the country a lot of heartache and danger.”
