Long security lines at some U.S. airports could begin to ease Monday if President Donald Trump’s executive order instructing the Department of Homeland Security to pay TSA agents takes effect.
Trump signed the order Friday afternoon when it became clear that the U.S. House of Representatives would not take up a DHS funding bill passed earlier Friday by the Senate. The order directs Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to pay TSA agents immediately, though it is not clear where the money would come from.
According to The Hill, the White House could tap into funding made available through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which became law last year.
Officials have said pay will restart over the next few days.
Travelers passing through airports such as Atlanta, Houston Bush, JFK, and New Oreans have faced occasional long lines at TSA checkpoints since the partial shutdown of the federal government began last month. Democrats and some Republicans in Congress are blocking funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which TSA operates under, in a bid to reform the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies, which came under intense public scrutiny earlier this year.
The impasse has left TSA agents working without pay. So far, over 480 have quit the agency, and a growing number are calling out of work. At some airports, such as Atlanta, absentee rates have reached 50%.
The Senate passed a bill early Friday morning that would restore pay for the entire Department of Homeland Security except for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. Employees of those agencies are still being paid despite the partial shutdown through allocations made in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Republicans in the House opted not to take up the Senate’s legislation and instead advanced their own bill, which would fund all of DHS for 60 days.
