WASHINGTON — TSA airport screeners could be paid as soon as Monday — after President Trump signed an executive order, border czar Tom Homan revealed.
It’s been 43 days since TSA workers — who make an average of $49,000 per year — have been fully paid, thanks to a Democrat-led partial government shutdown.
“There is a plan to get these TSA agents paid, hopefully by tomorrow or Tuesday,” Homan told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
“It’s good news, because these TSA officers are struggling. They can’t feed their families or pay the rent,” he added. “They’re sitting there right now, working very hard, not being paid by members of Congress [who are] out on vacation getting paid. It’s ridiculous.”
President Trump took executive action on Friday, claiming emergency powers to direct the Department of Homeland Security to move money around in order to pay TSA workers.
TSA workers last received a full paycheck on Feb. 14, then a partial on Feb. 28. They then missed two full paychecks on March 13 and 27th.
Trump’s executive action came shortly after talks broke down in Congress to fund DHS. The Senate unanimously passed a bill to fund all of DHS except parts of Customs and Border Protection as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The idea was that Senate Republicans could use the reconciliation process, which bypasses the 60-vote filibuster, to fund ICE and CBP without Democratic support.
But House Republicans rejected that idea, arguing there’s too much uncertainty about reconciliation and that many disagreed with some of the text in the Senate bill.
Instead, they’ve pushed for a 60-day stopgap measure to fund all of DHS while talks with Democrats over their demands for reforms to ICE play out.
Ultimately, the Senate had adjourned for a two-week recess, leaving DHS funding in limbo.
