Trump moves to pay TSA agents as shutdown talks stall in Congress

The estimated waits time for standard security screening was four hours at George Bush Intercontinental Airport before 6:30 a.m. on March 26, 2025. Michael Garcia/The Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images

President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he will sign an order allowing the Department of Homeland Security to pay airport security workers who have gone without a full paycheck since the shutdown began in mid-February.

The order does not appear to include pay for other federal employees working for DHS, including those at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Secret Service.

“It is not an easy thing to do, but I am going to do it! I want to thank our hardworking TSA agents and also ICE for the incredible help they have given us at the airports,” Trump wrote on social media. “I will not allow the Radical Left Democrats to hold our country hostage ...