Trump Says He’ll Sign Executive Order to Pay TSA

This article was updated from its original version after the Senate voted on a measure early Friday morning that would fund the Transportation Security Administration.

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U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday evening declared an emergency at the nation’s airports and said he intended to sign an executive order by Friday to direct the Department of Homeland Security to pay Transportation Security Administration employees, who have been working without pay for more than 40 days. Just a few hours after his statements, the Senate passed a measure that would fund the department enough that TSA workers could be paid. The bill does not include funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has been the legislative sticking point.

Trump called the record-long wait times travelers have experienced airport security screening lines “Democrat Chaos,” though both Senate Republicans and Democrats for weeks have rejected the other side’s proposals to get TSA agents paid. Legislative talks stalled on Thursday, but the Senate voted on the current bill around 2:20am on Friday. It still must be voted on in the House of Representatives before Congress members leave Washington for a two-week recess beginning on today.  

TSA agents, airport operations, airlines and the traveling public have absorbed the collateral damage of the political fracas. Hundreds of TSA agents have quit and thousands are not reporting to work.

Trump did not detail what funds the department would use to pay TSA workers, should Congress fail to resolve the funding impasse. A senior administration official and another person familiar with the matter told the New York Times the money would come from funds provided to DHS last year as part of Trump’s tax cut and domestic policy law. It is unclear how long it would take to access those funds and get TSA agents paid. That said, even if Congress does not reach agreement, it not clear that the president would need to declare an emergency or enact an executive order to tap those particular resources and why it has not been done already before agents were compelled to find other employment or call out sick. It is the second time in less than 6 months that TSA workers and the traveling public have faced this scenario. 

With wait times this week hitting more than four hours at some of the country’s busiest airports like Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport, both Delta and United airlines had begun to issue waivers to travelers who opted not to travel or who missed their flights while standing in long security lines. Travel associations, for their part, continued to issue urgent statements to Congress about the shutdown’s impact on the industry and the overall U.S. economy, and what message the operational breakdowns were sending to international markets that the U.S. should be trying to attract for critical upcoming events and national celebrations. 

“Business travel depends on predictability and efficiency, and right now, both are breaking down at America’s airports,” GBTA CEO Suzanne Neufang wrote in a statement to the legislature. “GBTA is once more urging Congress to resolve the shutdown before departing for a two-week Congressional spring recess. The traveling public, the TSA workforce and the U.S. business community need leadership and action now. It is time to get travel and travelers moving again.”

GBTA underscored that business travel was expected to contribute U.S. business travel also contributes $484.4 billion in direct spending to the U.S. economy this year, supporting 6 million U.S. jobs and accounting for almost 2 percent of U.S. gross domestic product.  

The U.S. Travel Association was more pointed in a Monday statement regarding the hypocrisy baked into legislators’ intransigence on supporting TSA workers. 

“There is a striking irony in Congress preparing to leave town for a two-week paid recess while TSA officers, the people who secure America’s travel system, face yet another $0 paycheck," the travel advocacy group wrote in a public statement. "Come Friday, if Congress fails to do its job and pass a DHS funding bill, they’ll head to the airports, get escorted to the front of the security line and be screened by the very TSA officers they failed to pay. Meanwhile, millions of Americans will arrive at airports over the next three weeks to face hours-long waits and endless frustration.”

Delta Air Lines, for one, this week temporarily retracted the skip-the-line privileges afforded to Congress members as airline operations dealt with the chaos. The airlines said lawmakers would have privileges like every other traveler in line with their earned loyalty status.