House lawmakers reject Senate plan to fund all of Homeland Security except for ICE and Border Patrol
By Olivia Beavers,Terell Wright, Natalie Andrew,
WASHINGTON—President Trump directed federal officials to pay Transportation Security Administration workers, bypassing a gridlocked Congress after the latest proposal to fund the broader Department of Homeland Security ran aground Friday.
The move, which Trump had previewed a day earlier, came as House Republican leaders rejected a Senate-passed bill that would fund most of DHS, including the TSA. A standoff in Congress over immigration enforcement and funding has led to missed paychecks for airport-security workers and long lines for travelers.
The executive action instructs the Homeland Security secretary and the White House budget director to use federal funds that have a “reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations” to pay the TSA workers. The memo, signed Friday afternoon by Trump, described the situation at the airports as an “unprecedented emergency.”
