President Trump signed an executive action Friday to restore pay for Transportation Security Administration workers, declaring an emergency after a bipartisan Senate funding deal fell apart in the House — leaving the 44-day partial government shutdown with no clear legislative resolution in sight.
Trump framed the situation as a national security crisis, saying the country’s air travel system had reached a breaking point. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said TSA workers could expect to begin seeing paychecks as early as Monday. The funds, according to the administration, will be drawn from money with a direct connection to TSA operations.
The action came after a chaotic 24 hours in Congress. The Senate passed a compromise bill by voice vote in the early hours of Friday morning that would fund most of the Department of Homeland Security — including TSA, FEMA and the Coast Guard — while deliberately excluding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. Democrats had refused to fund those agencies without new restrictions on immigration enforcement practices, particularly following the deaths of two Americans during immigration-related protests in Minneapolis.
House Speaker Mike Johnson rejected the Senate deal almost immediately after it landed. Following a lengthy call with House Republicans, Johnson called the Senate’s approach a joke and announced the House would pursue its own path — a short-term bill funding the entire department through May 22nd. Johnson said he had spoken with Trump, who supported the House approach.
The problem is that the Senate has already left Washington, and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer made clear that the House Republican plan would go nowhere in his chamber. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries called on the House to simply pass the Senate bill and end the standoff today.
The episode has exposed a visible crack between Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who worked through the night to assemble a deal — only to have it publicly dismissed by his House counterpart hours later. Thune acknowledged the two had only communicated by text and said he had no idea what the House would do.
The human toll of the shutdown has been escalating rapidly. More than 40 percent of TSA workers have been calling out at multiple major airports. Nearly 500 officers have resigned outright since the shutdown began. On Thursday alone, more than 3,450 scheduled TSA employees failed to report for work — a callout rate exceeding 11 percent nationally. The current shutdown has now surpassed last fall’s 43-day record, becoming the longest in the department’s history.
