A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer watches a line of passengers pass through security at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on March 22, 2026.
Charlie Tribalew | AFP | Getty Images
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday promising to pay Transportation Security Administration employees after attempts to end the Department of Homeland Security shutdown abruptly failed in Congress.
President Trump signed the action aimed at easing long security lines at many of the nation’s major airports.
“The United States’ air travel system is at breaking point,” President Trump said in a memo approving the payments. It added: “We have determined that these situations constitute an emergency that threatens national security.”
President Trump said his administration would use “funds that have a reasonable and logical connection to TSA operations” to make the payments. Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullin said in a statement Friday that TSA employees “should begin receiving paychecks as early as Monday.”
President Trump’s actions may help alleviate the hardships of air travelers, but they do little to resolve the DHS shutdown, which is crowding airports and imposing financial hardship on thousands of federal workers. The House and Senate ended the week passing vastly different bills, creating a new impasse as lawmakers leave Washington for a two-week recess.
The Department of Homeland Security’s shutdown reached 44 days on Sunday, surpassing the previous record of 43 days set last fall, which affected the entire federal government.
House Republicans reject Senate agreement
The Senate passed the funding deal early Friday, but pushback from House Republicans came quickly. House Speaker Mike Johnson opened the debate, accusing Democrats of playing a dangerous game and saying they needed to talk to Republicans about how to proceed.
After a lengthy conference call, Prime Minister Johnson slammed the Senate’s actions and announced that the House of Commons would go in a different direction. “This ploy that took place last night was a joke,” Johnson said.
Instead, the House passed a bill Friday night that would fund the entire department through May 22. The vote was 213-203. Johnson said he spoke with President Trump about the House Republicans’ plan and that the president supported it.
House Republicans were furious that the Senate-passed bill did not provide funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement or border security. Democrats refused to fund these departments without changing immigration enforcement practices.
“We’re going to do something different,” Johnson said. He appealed to the Senate to accept the House’s short-term fix through May on funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
But the senators left town after voting to fund most of DHS, so it will take time for them to return if the House passes another bill. And even if they were to return, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer made it clear that House Republicans’ plans “are dead on arrival in the Senate, and Republicans know it.”
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the Senate-passed bill would pass the House with Republican and Democratic votes if Johnson allows it to be voted on.
“This could and should end today,” Jeffries said.
Contents of the Senate compromise bill
Senators worked through the night to approve by voice vote a bill that would fund much of the Department of Homeland Security, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Coast Guard and TSA.
Senate Republicans said they were disappointed in the lack of funding for ICE and Border Patrol, but noted that immigration enforcement has remained largely uninterrupted. The big Republican tax cut bill that President Trump signed into law last year pumped billions of dollars in additional funding into DHS, including $75 billion for ICE operations.
But conservative Republicans opposed setting a precedent that Congress could fund some agencies within the Department of Homeland Security but not others during the annual appropriations process.
“We will fully fund ICE. That’s what this fight is about,” said Sen. Eric Schmidt, R-Missouri. “The borders are closing. The next mission is deportation.”
Democrats have refused to defund ICE and the Border Patrol after two Americans died protesting a massive immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.
They are asking federal officers to wear identification, remove masks and refrain from raids around schools, churches and other sensitive areas. Democrats also want to abolish administrative warrants and require judges to sign off on them before agents can search people’s homes or private spaces, something DHS chief Marin said she was open to considering.
Fissures in Republican leadership
The Senate’s rejection of the deal creates a notable rift between Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R.S.D., who have worked largely together this Congress to enact President Trump’s policies.
With all Democrats opposed, Thune had to find a funding solution to get the 60 votes needed to break the filibuster in a 53-47 Senate.
After more than a week of intense negotiations, some involving the White House, the two countries agreed early Friday to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security, with the exception of parts of ICE and CBP. It was passed by voice vote shortly after 2 a.m. with no objections from either side.
When asked if he had worked out a compromise with Johnson, Thune said the two had sent text messages.
“I don’t know what the House will do,” Thune said.
The White House remained silent and President Trump did not speak publicly as senators considered a compromise.
The next day, Thun did not respond to comments that Johnson was left in the dark after the deal collapsed in the House of Commons.
Asked about the rift with Thune, he said Senate Democrats were to blame for the situation.
Airport routes expand as TSA employees endure hardship
The DHS closure has caused travel delays and even led to warnings of airport closures as unpaid TSA employees are no longer reporting to work. These workers had already endured the nation’s longest government shutdown last fall.
TSA staff availability at multiple airports exceeded 40%, and nearly 500 of the TSA’s approximately 50,000 transportation security employees retired during the airport closure. More than 11.8% of TSA employees nationwide were absent from work on Thursday, according to DHS. This equates to over 3,450 callouts.
