WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Thursday he would sign an order instructing the Homeland Security secretary to immediately pay Transportation Security Administration agents as Congress struggled to reach a deal to end a budget impasse that has jammed airports and left workers without paychecks.
Trump announced his decision in a social media post saying he wanted to quickly stop the “Chaos at the Airports.”
“It is not an easy thing to do, but I am going to do it!” the president posted.
With pressure mounting, the White House had floated the extraordinary move of invoking a national emergency to pay TSA agents, while senators were reviewing a “last and final” offer from Republicans to Democrats to end the funding impasse at the Department of Homeland Security.
Details of the president’s plan were not immediately available, but a national emergency declaration would be politically fraught and almost certain to face legal challenges. Instead, the president may simply be shifting money from other sources.
Democrats have been refusing to fund the Homeland Security as they demand changes to rein in Trump’s immigration enforcement operations. The Senate came to a standstill and senators, ready to leave town for their own spring break, had prepared to stay all night to reach a deal.
“The president is doing absolutely the right thing,” said Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., the GOP whip. “The TSA agents are going to be paid.”
Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, issued a statement saying that paying just TSA workers, while welcome, isn't enough. AFGE represents 47,000 TSA officers.
"We don’t yet know what this means for thousands of other DHS employees at FEMA, the Coast Guard, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, among others," Kelley said in his statement.
"These workers and their families cannot wait. All DHS workers must be paid immediately," he added. "Congress needs to continue working to pass a
