BREAKING: Trump Signs Executive Order to Pay TSA Agents

On Friday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to pay TSA agents all current and back pay amidst the ongoing partial government shutdown.

The news comes just after the GOP-led House rejected the Senate-approved measure to fund all of the Department of Homeland Security — except ICE and Border Patrol — through the end of the fiscal year.

Per Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich, there is “still not a lot of clarity” on how exactly the Trump administration will make the payments — “what mechanism it will happen through.”

“He mentions the Office of Management and Budget, obviously, but what bucket do they pull the cash from?” she said, referring to the actual executive order.

Reading a line from Trump’s memo that stood out to her, Heinrich said, “Since the shutdown began, nearly 500 transportation security officers have left their positions and thousands more have begun to call out sick at record rates due to lack of pay. As a result, security wait times at some airports have reached untenable lengths of three or more hours. The increased wait times, combined with declining morale among TSA staff, unacceptably heightened the risk of security vulnerabilities within our domestic travel system and have negatively impacted countless Americans.”

“We also don’t know the level of sort of certainty that this executive order is going to bridge that gap and actually result in paychecks, or how soon that could happen,” continued Heinrich, also mentioning the fact that Trump hasn’t yet commented on the House rejection of the DHS funding memo earlier this morning.

“But with the Senate now gone and the House trying to put something across the finish line that would punt this issue back to the Senate, it certainly looks like the Republican leadership is going to be under some pressure to not be the last one holding the hot potato,” she concluded.

Watch the clip above via Fox News.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!