TSA Pay Warning
- What happened: DHS warned it could run out of money to pay TSA officers if Congress doesn't act. - The key specific: Officials say TSA pay could be at risk within weeks amid the DHS funding lapse. - Context: Travelers and frontline staff are watching congressional moves closely as airport operations face strain (providencejournal.com)(koat.com).
The Department of Homeland Security says it could run out of money to pay about 50,000 Transportation Security Administration workers in early May if Congress does not restore funding. (koat.com) Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said this week that DHS payroll runs “just over $1.6 billion every two weeks” and that the emergency money now covering paychecks will be exhausted after the next pay period. (koat.com) The shutdown began on February 14, and the dispute is limited to DHS because Congress already passed full-year fiscal 2026 funding for the rest of the federal government. (usatoday.com) President Donald Trump signed an executive action in late March directing DHS to use emergency funds to pay TSA officers after they had gone roughly six weeks without paychecks. A week later, he extended similar back-pay relief to the rest of the department. (koat.com) (thehill.com) That move eased some pressure at airports, where checkpoint staffing had been hit by high callout rates and resignations during the lapse. DHS said in March that 366 Transportation Security Officers had left the force and that some airports were seeing security lines longer than three hours. (dhs.gov) The staffing strain showed up in national numbers. The Hill reported that TSA callouts peaked at 12.35% nationwide on March 27, then fell after pay resumed; on Easter Sunday, the national callout rate was 7.98%, with Atlanta at 24.6%. (thehill.com) Congress has not settled on a fix. Senate Republicans previously advanced a bill to fund most of DHS, including TSA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but House Republicans rejected that approach before the Easter recess. (thehill.com) (koat.com) Republicans have pushed to split the issue into one bipartisan measure for most of DHS and a separate party-line package for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. Democrats have argued for reopening the department without carving out agencies. (koat.com) (usatoday.com) For travelers, the immediate question is whether the temporary payroll bridge lasts long enough to avoid another drop in staffing at airport checkpoints. For Congress, the deadline is now measured in pay periods, not months. (koat.com)
