What to know about partial DHS shutdown as TSA officers start getting paid

Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers started getting retroactive paychecks Monday for the weeks they have worked without pay during the partial 44-day shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

House Republicans on Friday rejected a bipartisan Senate deal to reopen much of the DHS, including the TSA, leaving the department unfunded as lawmakers left Washington for a two-week Easter recess.

But President Trump’s executive order, which he signed Friday, tapped into a different source of funding to pay TSA officers — a move aimed at easing hours-long security wait times and encouraging Transportation Security officers, to show up to work, as callout rates topped 12 percent Friday.

Here’s the latest on the partial shutdown and its impact on the TSA:

TSA officers start getting paychecks

Most TSA officers began getting paid Monday for pay periods 4 and 5 — the most recent stretches of time interrupted by the shutdown — but officials cautioned that government workers might see some delays in receiving full back pay.

“Most TSA employees received a retroactive paycheck today that included at least two full paychecks covering pay periods 4 and 5 today,” DHS spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement.

The DHS shutdown, which started Feb. 14, began in the middle of the third pay period, and Bis said DHS is “working aggressively” with the relevant financial institutions “to complete processing for the half paycheck they are owed from pay period 3 as soon as possible.”

Bis said some TSA employees “might see a slight delay” for reasons including “financial institution processing times or issues with their direct deposit.”

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) — the largest federal worker union, representing approximately 47,000 of the 51,000 TSA workers who worked unpaid during the shutdown — confirmed that most of its members began receiving paychecks Monday for pay periods 4 and 5.

But AFGE TSA Council 100, which represents the TSA officers, expressed concern that several officers “have received incorrect pay amounts due to missing overtime payments and improper tax withholdings.”

Long lines start to ease at airports

For weeks, security lines at major airports around the country have snaked around terminals and caused significant flight delays, as more officers quit or stopped showing up for work.

Wait times at TSA checkpoints remained as long as an hour at some major airports over the weekend, but the four-hour lines seen at a small number of air hubs were not as pervasive.

Friday sets record for callout rate 

Even after Trump announced his intention Thursday evening to sign an executive order to pay TSA workers, officers were absent from work Friday at the highest rate recorded during this shutdown.

The national callout rate hit 12.35 percent Friday, dropping slightly to 10.59 percent Sunday, according to the DHS.

Many of the major airports continued to report high callout rates Sunday: 38.5 percent at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport; 36.4 percent at George Bush Intercontinental Airport; 34.1 percent at William P. Hobby Airport; 34.1 percent at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport; 33.7 percent at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport; 29.6 percent at John F. Kennedy International Airport; 23.4 percent at Pittsburgh International Airport; 23 percent at Philadelphia International Airport; and 22.9 percent at LaGuardia Airport. 

Larger airports have tended to report higher callout rates during the shutdown.

Union leaders have noted that many of the massive air hubs are in metropolitan areas where the cost of living may prevent TSA officers from living close to work. In turn, with gas prices increasing since the start of the Iran war, many officers have found it difficult to keep up with those costs without a paycheck, union leaders have said.

ICE officers may stay at airports: Homan

Trump deployed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to more than a dozen major airports across the country last Monday in an effort to ease long lines and travel delays caused by the TSA staffing strain.

By the middle of the week, ICE officers were spotted getting trained in nonspecialized screening and taking on some TSA duties, including checking identification, guarding exits and entrances, and manning the queue.

White House border czar Tom Homan, who’s been tasked with overseeing the ICE deployment at airports, said Sunday that ICE officers will remain at airports to support the strained TSA workforce until the immigration officers are no longer needed. 

Homan noted many TSA officers have either quit entirely or have stopped showing up to work, opting instead to take on second jobs to make their monthly payments. He said those officers won’t return overnight — even after Trump signed the executive order directing Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to pay TSA officers.

“I’m hoping, with this change that President Trump put in place with Secretary Markwayne Mullin, that more will come back to work. Until then, ICE will remain in airports to … do the jobs that don’t require the enhanced TSA screening, so we can get more TSA screeners on the X-ray machines, open up more lanes” and “get the American public through the airport,” Homan said in an interview on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.”

“If less TSA agents come back, that means we’ll keep more ICE agents there,” he added.

Asked about readiness for big national security events, like the FIFA World Cup this summer, Homan stressed the president’s focus on securing airports “especially … in an increased threat posture.”

“We’re going to continue an ICE presence there until the airports feel they’re 100 percent in a posture where they can do normal operations,” Homan said.

“ICE is there to help our brothers and sisters in TSA,” he added. “We’ll be there as long as they need us, until they get back to normal operations and feel like those airports are secure.”

Partial shutdown persists amid Congress’s 2-week recess

Lawmakers departed Washington on Friday for a two-week Easter recess without securing a deal to fund and reopen the DHS.

The Republican-controlled Senate passed a bipartisan deal to reopen most of the DHS, but the GOP-led House rejected the compromise, leaving many DHS employees without pay before the holiday break. 

AFGE TSA Council 100 President Hydrick Thomas slammed Congress for leaving Washington before ending the partial shutdown.

“We have performed our duty. Unfortunately, Congress has failed to perform theirs. To leave Washington while tens of thousands of workers are going without pay shows a clear lack of respect for the essential employees tasked with keeping our nation safe,” Thomas said in a Monday statement.

The union leader said members “are grateful to receive some backpay,” but noted that many TSA officers face late fees and credit card interest, adding, “And our fellow DHS employees are still not being paid thanks to the dysfunction in Congress.”

“To say we are utterly disgusted and disappointed with our elected officials is an understatement. Congress must come back to Washington, fix this crisis, and stop putting politics over people and vacation over values,” he continued.

The DHS, meanwhile, blamed Democrats for the shutdown on Monday.

“This is the longest government shutdown in history. Enough is enough. We have to reopen DHS. Democrats must stop using federal workers as political pawns and start focusing on what matters—taking care of the American people,” Bis said in a statement.

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