White House, Democrats trade blame for missed paychecks and airport delays

As some airports around the country are starting to see increased wait times due to federal screeners calling out, congressional Democrats and the White House remain far divided in reaching a solution to the current single-agency shutdown and are instead pointing the finger at each other for its consequences. 

The Homeland Security Department has been shut down for nearly a month and the impacts are starting to be felt on a wider basis. Several airports, including Houston and New Orleans, reported hours-long wait times over the weekend and on Monday, as Transportation Security Administration officers recently received partial paychecks—further reduced because full deductions were still withheld—and are slated to miss their entire next paychecks. The call outs leading to increased wait times are likely to jump once the zeroed-out checks hit accounts in the coming days. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., accused Democrats of refusing to negotiate over a path forward. Democratic leaders are seeking reforms to President Trump’s immigration enforcement crackdown and while the two sides have traded proposals and Trump recently announced he would fire DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, the two sides have not gotten closer to an agreement. Thune said on Tuesday he would once again bring up a funding vehicle for DHS for a Senate vote this week, though absent a breakthrough it will not get the 60 votes required for passage. 

“This is kind of a new low, really. There are certain things the American people, I think, expect of their elected officials,” Thune said. “One of which is to continue the basic functioning of the government.”

Trump said on Monday he would not sign any bills into law until Congress passed a measure creating new hurdles for Americans to vote in federal elections, though the White House later clarified he would make an exception for any DHS funding legislation. 

Democrats last week sought to pass a bill that would have paid TSA, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Coast Guard and other non-immigration staff on time while negotiations continued over reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, but Republicans blocked the measure from proceeding. Most ICE and CBP employees are receiving their normal pay due to previously allocated funding. 

“​​President Trump wants the Department of Homeland Security, he wants TSA, he wants FEMA, he wants the brave men and women of our United States Coast Guard to receive their paychecks and he wants this department to be fully funded and fully reopened,” White House Press Secretary Karolien Leavitt said on Tuesday. 

She lamented that more than 100,000 DHS employees are facing delayed paychecks, including a small percentage of staff who are home on furlough. Leavitt encouraged any American frustrated with wait times at airports to call Democratic lawmaker offices and encourage them to support DHS funding. 

Acting TSA Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill told Congress last month that her agency saw a 25% increase in attrition during the record-setting shutdown last fall compared to the same six-week period the year before the lapse. TSA can ill-afford a similar employee drain now, she added, as the agency is preparing for increased traffic during spring break and the upcoming World Cup. 

“It’s affecting recruiting as we speak,” she said of the lingering uncertainty.

Democratic appropriators said Republicans are intentionally holding up funding for some DHS components to gain leverage.

“I encourage them to stop their partisan games, and pass my bill to fund TSA, along with FEMA, the Coast Guard, Secret Service, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the law-abiding components of Homeland Security while negotiations continue on ICE and CBP,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee. 

Sen. Patty Murray, DeLauro’s counterpart in the Senate, said she has pushed for “basic accountability measures” for ICE and CBP for months. Democrats had agreed to a bipartisan DHS funding bill that included some reforms for those agencies, but the lawmakers announced new demands after DHS law enforcement personnel fatally shot Alex Pretti in Minnesota in January.

“We are talking about standards local police already follow across the country,” Murray said. “But Republicans have decided they would rather shut down DHS than work with us to rein in these rogue agencies.”