President Donald Trump said on Thursday he will take executive action to pay 50,000 airport security workers as a deal stalled in Congress to address staff shortages that have snarled travel around the country.
Trump said he was instructing the Homeland Security Department “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!”
Nearly 500 airport security officers have quit since the start of a partial government shutdown in February, the Homeland Security Department said, as a congressional dispute over the department’s funding forces Transportation Security Administration officers to work without pay.
It is unclear how long the funding will last or if Trump is tapping funding for the Homeland Security Department approved last year as part of a massive tax and spending bill.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune called Trump’s move “a short-term solution,” but he did not mention the duration of the TSA paychecks.
Representative Bennie Thompson, top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, said it is not clear how Trump plans to pay TSA officers legally.