Trump Issues Executive Order Telling DHS to ‘Immediately Pay Our TSA Agents’

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

President Donald Trump issued an executive order Thursday evening directing Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to “immediately pay our TSA Agents.”

As the standoff between Democrats and Republicans in Congress over funding for DHS has dragged on, TSA agents have been working at the nation’s airports without being paid. Numerous agents who cannot afford to forgo their paychecks have been calling out, leaving travelers mired in hours-long security lines — including an NTSB investigator who was trying to get to the scene of a deadly runway crash at LaGuardia Airport.

On Monday, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) confirmed reports that there had been a deal on the table from Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) where the Democrats would agree to end the shutdown by funding everything but ICE, so the TSA agents could get paid, but Trump killed that deal.

By Tuesday, however, Kennedy was saying that Trump might actually have changed his mind again, and was possibly now willing to support the deal and bring the shutdown to an end.

Two days later, Kennedy floated a new tactic: funding just the TSA. The Louisiana senator initially said he was planning to bring a standalone bill to the floor for a vote and then told reporters he would hold off because he was anticipating the president would issue an executive order with the same goal.

That executive order was announced via a post on Trump’s Truth Social account Thursday evening, in which he blamed Democrats for the ongoing shutdown and said he was directing Mullin “to immediately pay our TSA Agents in order to address this Emergency Situation”:

The Radical Left Democrats, and their “Leader,” Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, have made it very clear where they stand, and that is, ON THE SIDE OF CRIMINAL ILLEGAL ALIENS, AND NOT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. They are refusing to fund Immigration Enforcement unless the Republicans agree to their Open Border Policies, which will never, ever happen again. They almost destroyed our Country, allowing 25 Million People to enter from Prisons, Mental Institutions, and Insane Asylums, those that are Drug Dealers, and thousands of Murderers, many of whom killed more than one person. Because the Democrats have recklessly created a true National Crisis, I am using my authorities under the Law to protect our Great Country, as I always will do! Therefore, I am going to sign an Order instructing the Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, to immediately pay our TSA Agents in order to address this Emergency Situation, and to quickly stop the Democrat Chaos at the Airports. 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. I will not allow the Radical Left Democrats to hold our Country hostage any longer. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP

Using an executive order to fund TSA is vulnerable to legal challenges, like many of Trump’s previous executive orders have faced, for lacking the proper authority under federal law. A report by The Wall Street Journal earlier in the day Thursday noted that the Antideficiency Act “prohibits federal spending without an appropriation by Congress.”

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