President Donald Trump on Friday issued a memorandum directing the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to provide compensation and benefits to Transportation Security Administration employees by using funds that have a nexus to TSA operations.
The directive arrives as the Department of Homeland Security enters its sixth week of a shutdown. According to the memorandum, more than 60,000 TSA employees - including approximately 50,000 transportation security officers who staff domestic airport checkpoints - have been required to continue working without pay since the shutdown began.
The memorandum states that nearly 500 transportation security officers have left their positions since the shutdown started, and that thousands more have been calling out sick at record rates, citing lack of pay. It links these workforce strains to longer passenger-processing times at some airports, noting security wait times reaching three hours or more.
In the text of the memorandum, the president characterized the situation as an emergency that compromises national security. It asserts that the delays at screening checkpoints, together with declining morale among TSA personnel, increase security vulnerabilities within the domestic travel system.
The DHS shutdown itself is attributed in the memorandum to a congressional dispute over immigration enforcement. The document states that Democrats shut down DHS over demands to prohibit enforcement of federal immigration law.
The memorandum is addressed specifically to the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and instructs officials to identify and use available funds that are connected to TSA operations to ensure continued payment of compensation and benefits to TSA employees.
The administration's directive seeks to address immediate financial strain on TSA staff while the broader congressional disagreement that triggered the shutdown remains in place.