The partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) hits the two-month mark on Tuesday, the same day Congress is set to return from its Easter recess. After many attempts to broker a deal and no small amount of wrangling on his part, President Donald Trump finally got DHS workers – including agents for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) – a paycheck on April 10. While it did include back pay, the executive order was a band-aid at best, not a cure, and it leaves open the question of what happens next payday. According to a DHS memo sent out ahead of the paychecks, workers are already being told not to hold their breath. The next check is on Congress.
DHS Funding: Is Congress Ready to Get Back to Work?
Congress has been on recess for about two weeks, leaving DC shortly after the Senate passed a partial DHS funding bill, only for House Republicans to snub it. President Trump pressed GOP leadership to reconsider, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) said he would call a vote on and endorse the partial spending bill with a plan to cover ICE and CBP at some time in the near future via reconciliation – but not until the House returns from their Easter recess, which he refused to cut short to end the shutdown.
So, while tens of thousands of DHS employees continued to work without pay, members of Congress – who get paid a minimum flat rate of $174,000 a year whether they work or not – were free to do as they pleased with their two-week vacation. Some worked at home, in their districts. Others traveled on state-sponsored diplomatic trips around the world.
Some – but not all. According to entertainment news outlet TMZ, several enjoyed their little break from the Swamp. Republican Congressman Steve Scalise of Louisiana, for example, spent his at the ever-popular spring break destination of Orange Beach. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was photographed at Disney World in Orlando. He spoke out once TMZ ran the photos, arguing that he was in the area for a meeting about Middle East policy. He said that he didn’t cause the shutdown and that he was entitled to a break. Still, the average Disney World vacation costs between $800 and $1,500 a day, according to NerdWallet – not the best look at this particular moment. Democrat Representative Robert Garcia of California was spotted at a casino bar in Las Vegas, and evidently, Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-RI) took time during the break to co-host a watch party for the premiere of Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Rhode Island.
The recess ends this week, however, and that means it’s back to work for Congress come Tuesday, April 14. But thanks to infighting among Republicans in the House, now it seems uncertain as to whether the Senate-passed bill to fund DHS will pass at all.
Trump Paid DHS – But the Next Check Is on Congress
On March 27, President Trump signed an executive memo titled “Paying Our Great Transportation Security Administration Officers and Employees.” It ordered the director of the Office of Management and Budget and the Secretary of Homeland Security to use funds that have “a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations” to pay TSA employees on April 10, including all missed pay to that point. On Friday, April 3, he signed a memo authorizing paychecks for “more than 35,000 employees, including Coast Guard civilians, Federal Emergency Management Agency employees helping prepare the Nation for disaster response, and cybersecurity professionals at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.”
His authority to do so has been challenged, and it remains unclear whether it will be deemed constitutional or not, but in the meantime, workers who have gone almost two months without pay are finally paid up – for now. Another memo indicated the next paycheck was on Congress.
Now that they’ve been paid, many of the TSA agents who called out and didn’t go back to work – presumably because they had to go find other means of earning a living – have been recalled and are returning to the job. The callout rate remains high, but it’s less than a third of what it was at the height of the funding lapse, according to DHS. But if Congress doesn’t pass a funding bill soon to guarantee that next payday, those employees will once again be forced to make the hard decisions.
