Trump signs memo to pay TSA employees as shutdown stalemate drags on

The Department of Homeland Security says Transportation Security Administration employees could receive paychecks as soon as Monday, following a memo signed by President Trump. Trump's unilateral action comes as House Republican leadership rejected the latest deal to end the DHS shutdown.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., says House Republicans will not accept a Senate-passed bill to fund the majority of the Department of Homeland Security.

The Senate bill does not include additional funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Border Patrol — and it does not include any of the demands Democrats made to limit the tactics of federal immigration officers. Republicans in the House met Friday after the legislation passed and rejected the plan.

Johnson said the House will vote instead on a stop-gap spending bill to fund the entire Department of Homeland Security until May 22.

"I spoke to the president a few moments ago, he understands exactly what we're doing and why. And he supports it," Johnson said.

Johnson said he expects Republicans will pass the bill in the House, leaving the Senate to take up the measure. However, is very unclear if the stop-gap could pass in the Senate. Senators have already left Washington for a planned recess, and Democrats have refused to vote for any spending bill that funds ICE.

Johnson also referred to Trump's promise to pay TSA agents through executive action as a near-term way to alleviate backups at airports across the country. In a post on X Friday afternoon, DHS blamed the shutdown on Democrats and said that following Trump's directive, "TSA has immediately begun the process of paying its workforce." It was not immediately clear where that money would come from — and whether such a move was legal.

The DHS funding lapse forced tens of thousands of employees to work without pay or quit, and resulted in long waits at some airports amid peak spring break travel.

Ha Nguyen McNeill, the TSA acting administrator, told lawmakers at a hearing on Wednesday that absences are as high as 40% in some airports and more than 480 TSA officers have quit during the shutdown. "We are really concerned about our security posture and what the long term impacts of this shutdown is going to have on the workforce and our ability to carry out this mission," McNeill said.

Where Democrats stand

For weeks, Democrats have refused to support funding for DHS after federal officers killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.

The latest Senate package would have allowed Democrats in that chamber to fund operations like TSA, the Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, while still pressing for additional guardrails on immigration enforcement officers.

"Democrats held firm in our opposition that Donald Trump's rogue and deadly militia should not get more funding without serious reforms, and we will continue to fight for those reforms," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the floor. "I'm very proud of our Democratic caucus. Throughout it all, Senate Democrats stood united — no wavering, no backing down. We held the line."

Even some Democrats have warned that a funding agreement without the policy changes they are seeking diminishes their leverage. Senate Republicans have indicated that the time to negotiate has now passed.

"We could be standing here right now passing a funding bill with a list of reforms if Democrats had made the smallest effort to actually reach an agreement, but they didn't," Senate Majority Leader John Thune said on the floor early Friday morning. "It is now clear to everyone that Democrats didn't actually want a solution, they wanted an issue."

The department has been operating without regular appropriations for more than a month. But some divisions, like ICE, have continued to function thanks to about $75 billion provided by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Republicans passed last summer. Others, including the TSA, have relied on employees working without pay.

Negotiations under pressure

All week, top Republicans opposed funding DHS piecemeal. On Thursday, Thune said Republicans had delivered Democrats a final offer: fund all of DHS, including ICE, except the division responsible for enforcement and removal operations.

At least a handful of Democrats seemed open to this option, but worried the administration would use funding for other ICE divisions for enforcement and removal operations. Throughout the day, negotiators shuttled between the Senate chamber and Thune's office, trading language.

But by the evening, lawmakers were still struggling to reach an agreement to end the impasse, even as many viewed the worsening situation at the nation's airports as untenable.

Earlier in the week, Trump insisted that any DHS funding deal also include the voting law overhaul he wants ahead of the midterms, known as the Save America Act.

Not long after Trump's TSA announcement Thursday night, Thune told reporters about an agreement to fund most of DHS except for ICE and Border Patrol. The legislation was approved by voice vote after 2 a.m. with just a few Senators on the floor.