TSA officers could once again be working without pay as soon as the first week of May if Congress doesn't vote to reopen and fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Since March 30, TSA officers have been getting paid with what DHS secretary Markwayne Mullin described in a Fox News interview on April 21 as emergency funding that had been appropriated in last summer's budget bill, commonly known as the One Big Beautiful Bill. The payments have been pursuant to an executive order from President Donald Trump as the DHS shutdown, which began on Feb. 14, has dragged into a third month.
Mullin said there was initially $10 billion of that funding available, but with a payroll of $1.6 billion every two weeks, it has diminished quickly.
"That money is dried up if I continue down this path the first week of May," he said.
While TSA officers worked without a paycheck between Feb. 14 and March 30, callouts spiked, causing periods of extremely long security lines at some airports, especially George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport.
The shutdown occurred when Democrats and Republicans failed to reach an agreement on Democrat demands for new restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in exchange for refunding of the agency.
Reopening the Department of Homeland Security
As a work around, the Senate, on April 2, unanimously passed a bill that would reopen the DHS with the exception of ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
But Republican leadership in the House has delayed taking the bill up as it awaits a separate measure that would fund ICE and CBP.
On a largely party-line vote, with Republicans in favor, the Senate passed that measure on April 23. Using a budget process known as reconciliation, the Senate was able to advance the funding with a simple majority, and did not need the filibuster-proof 60 votes required of a budget bill. But the parliamentary procedure for completing a budget reconciliation is time consuming. And the House also must take up the measure.
In the meantime, the DHS still does not have a new funding package.
In an April 20 letter, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents approximately 100,000 DHS workers, including 47,000 at TSA, called on House members to pass the broader bill, reopening most of the DHS, with urgency.
"AFGE has deep concerns about the impact to worker livelihoods and government services if Congress fails to act," union president Everett Kelley said.