President Donald Trump on Friday signed a promised executive action that will pay Transportation Security Administration employees, after a deal that sought to do the same stalled in Congress.
LISA MASCARO, MARY CLARE JALONICK and KEVIN FREKINGPresident Donald Trump on Friday signed a promised executive action that will pay Transportation Security Administration employees, after a deal that sought to do the same stalled in Congress.
Trump signed the action with an eye toward easing long security lines at many of the nation's top airports. "America's air travel system has reached its breaking point," Trump said in the memo authorizing the payments. He added, "I have determined that these circumstances constitute an emergency situation compromising the Nation's security." Trump said his administration would use "funds that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations" for the payments. In a statement Friday, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said TSA workers "should begin seeing paychecks as early as Monday." On Thursday night, as lawmakers grappled with the issue, a senior administration official said the money would come from the tax bill Trump signed last year. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss it publicly. They compared the move to actions Trump took during a past shutdown to pay troops.Trump's action came after House Republicans rejected a Senate-passed bill to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security, a revolt that risks delaying a resolution to the funding impasse now in its 42nd day that has created long lines at many of the nation's airports.Johnson said that instead House Republicans would seek to pass a bill that would fund the entire department at until May 22. He also said he had spoken with Trump about the House Republican plan and the president supports it. House Republicans are angry that the bill passed early Friday by the Senate does not fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. Democrats refused to fund those departments without changes to immigration enforcement practices. "We're going to do something different," Johnson said, challenging the Senate to take up the House's continuing resolution on Monday, assuming it does pass the House, which is uncertain. But Senators have already left town after acting in the early morning hours to end the partial shutdown, so it would take time for them to return if the House ends up passing a different measure. And Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a social media post that the 60-day stopgap measure being considered in the House would be "dead on arrival in the Senate, and Republicans know it." That would mean the DHS shutdown that has jammed airports and imposed financial hardship on thousands of federal workers would continue for the foreseeable future."This could end, and should end, today," Jeffries said. "There is a bipartisan bill that has been sent over from the Senate that would reopen the non-controversial parts of the Department of Homeland Security." The Senate deal came together as pressure mounted to resolve the stalemate before TSA workers were set to miss another paycheck. After Trump said Thursday he would sign an order to immediately pay the TSA agents, senators pushed ahead with more negotiations where Republicans didn't get the funding they wanted for ICE and Democrats didn't get the reforms they wanted. "We can get at least a lot of the government opened up again, and then we'll go from there," said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. "Obviously, we'll still have some work ahead of us." Schumer of New York said the outcome could have been reached weeks ago, and he vowed that his party would continue fighting to ensure Trump's "rogue" immigration operation "does not get more funding without serious reform."Senators worked through the night on the deal that would fund much of Homeland Security, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard and TSA. Despite the shutdown, immigration enforcement has remained largely uninterrupted. That's because the GOP's big tax cuts bill that Trump signed into law last year funneled billions of dollars in extra funds to DHS, including $75 billion for ICE operations. Conservative Republicans were adamant, however, against establishing a precedent that allows Congress during the yearly appropriations process to fund some agencies within Homeland Security, but not others. They are demanding full funding for immigration operations, on top of what was provided by Trump's bill. "We will fully fund ICE. That is what this fight is about," Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., said. "The border is closing. The next task is deportation." The shutdown began Feb. 14 and talks have dragged on for weeks. On Thursday, Thune announced he had given a "last and final" offer to the Democrats. Democrats argued the GOP proposals did not go far enough at putting guardrails on officers from ICE, Customs and Border Protection, and other federal agencies that are engaged in the immigration sweeps, particularly after the deaths of two Americans protesting the actions in Minneapolis. They want federal agents to wear identification, remove their face masks and refrain from conducting raids around schools, churches or other sensitive places. Democrats have also pushed for an end of administrative warrants, insisting that judges sign off before agents search people's homes or private spaces - something new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has said he is open to considering.The DHS shutdown has resulted in travel delays and even warnings of airport closures as more TSA workers missing paychecks stopped going to work. Those workers had already endured the nation's longest government shutdown last fall. Multiple airports have been experiencing greater than 40% callout rates of TSA workers, and nearly 500 of the agency's nearly 50,000 transportation security officers have quit during the shutdown. Nationwide on Thursday, more than 11.8% of the TSA employees on the schedule missed work, according to DHS. That is more than 3,450 callouts.Associated Press writers Rebecca Santana, Collin Binkley, Mary Clare Jalonick and Ben Finley in Washington, Lekan Oyekanmi in Houston, Wyatte Grantham-Philips in New York, Rio Yamat in Las Vegas, Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, and Gabriela Aoun Angueira in San Diego contributed to this report.
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