Trump has directed the Department of Homeland Security to pay federal airport workers as travelers face long lines, according to a White House memo.
Published March 27, 2026
Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives have rejected a Senate-passed bill that would restore funding to the federal agency tasked with inspecting airports, continuing a chaotic standoff that leaves airports without pay for workers.
Early Friday morning, the Senate unanimously passed a bill that would provide funding for most of the agencies under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
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But the bill withheld funding from Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), two departments tied to President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown.
By Friday afternoon, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson acknowledged he would not bring the Senate-passed bill to the floor for a vote, calling it a “joke.”
“We’re going to do something different,” Johnson said, suggesting the House could advance its own bill to fully fund all DHS agencies for two months.
Separately, President Donald Trump signed an executive memo directing DHS to work with the White House budget director to find a way to pay TSA employees.
TSA security guards have remained unpaid since the partial government shutdown began in mid-February, with many quitting or refusing to report to work at airports across the country.
“America’s air travel system is at breaking point. This is an unprecedented emergency,” Trump said in the memo, blaming Democrats for the impasse.
He estimates that nearly 500 TSA security agents have walked off the job since the partial shutdown began.
Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers are criticizing Republicans for rejecting a bill that would have kept TSA workers paid while continuing to withhold additional funding from immigration enforcement.
Last July’s tax and spending bill allocated about $170 billion for immigration and border control, in addition to regular spending for ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Since January, Democrats have been pushing for more immigration funding to implement reforms such as ending racial profiling and clear background checks for immigration workers on the job.
“We’ve been clear from day one: Democrats will fund critical homeland security functions, but without reform we will not hand a blank check to President Trump’s lawless and dangerous immigration militia,” Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.
Schumer added that the House bill pushed by Johnson has not yet passed, but would be “killed on arrival” in the Senate.
Federal immigration authorities have been the subject of widespread public outrage during aggressive immigration raids. Human rights groups have accused the Trump administration of using violence and systematically violating civil liberties in its push for mass deportations.
Tensions reached a climax in January when two Americans, Alex Preti and Renee Nicole Good, were shot and killed by federal agents in separate incidents during immigration raids in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The Trump administration sparked further backlash by initially describing Good and Preti as domestic terrorists, even though video footage of the incident contradicted the government’s depiction of the incident.
