Trump says he’ll pay all DHS workers after House again fails to end 48-day shutdown

President Trump on Thursday said he plans to sign an executive order to pay all Homeland Security Department workers, after the House failed again to pass legislation ending the partial government shutdown, now in its 48th day.

The move, which Trump announced on his social media platform Truth Social, follows a similar edict issued last week authorizing pay for Transportation Security Administration workers, who had been previously forced to work without pay amid the party-line standoff over funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, the two agencies most central to the president’s immigration crackdown.

“…I will soon sign an order to pay ALL of the incredible employees at the Department of Homeland Security,” he wrote. “Their families have suffered for too long.”

It is unclear when Trump will sign the order, or upon what authority he would seek to pay thus-far unpaid DHS workers. The president signed executive orders Thursday afternoon, but as of press time they were confined to tariff-related issues.

TSA workers were granted four weeks’ worth of back pay Monday following the signing of the more targeted edict last week, while ICE and CBP workers have been paid on time since the beginning of the department-wide appropriations lapse using funds from the One Big Beautiful Bill law. Still working without pay within the department are employees at the Federal Emergency Management Agency along with support staff and other non-immigration-related DHS components. 

Observers had anticipated Thursday to serve as the potential end of the six-week impasse. After the House rejected a Senate-passed bill to fund DHS—minus ICE and CBP—through the end of September last week, senators again passed the bill with the expectation that the House would approve it via unanimous consent that morning. But when the House convened its pro forma session, lawmakers did not bring the measure up for consideration, reportedly due to pressure from conservative GOP members.

The next possible opportunity for Speaker Mike Johnson to advance the DHS legislation would be Monday. The House is not set to return to Washington until April 14.