TSA Employees’ Pay Flowing After Trump Order, But How Long Will Funds Last?

Trump Signs Executive Order: TSA Workers to Receive Immediate Pay

On Friday Mar 27, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the Secretary of Homeland Security to use available funds to ensure TSA employees receive their pay and benefits, despite the ongoing DHS shutdown. This move arrives 44 days into one of the longest partial government shutdowns in U.S. history and weeks after essential personnel began walking off the job in alarming numbers.

The administration is using money from last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act to pay TSA workers until Congress passes full DHS funding.

Why Did This Happen

The Department of Homeland Security oversees far more than airport security. The partial shutdown affects the Transportation Security Administration, FEMA, CISA, the U.S. Secret Service, the Coast Guard, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Customs and Border Protection. When lawmakers failed to meet the February 14 funding deadline, roughly 61,000 TSA employees began working without compensation.

The Worst Timing Possible: Spring Break, March Madness, and Record-Breaking Travel Chaos

This shutdown saga did not land during a slow travel period. It hit during one of the busiest stretches of the entire year.

The week of March 14 through 21 marks peak spring break season for colleges and universities nationwide. But spring breaks ripple across agencies and calendars from mid-February all the way through late April, depending on the school district and region. Millions of travelers flood airports at the exact moment TSA staffing shrinks.

Hertz and Avis Budget Group shares surged as travelers bypassed air travel for road trips amid TSA congestion. Hertz jumped 9.2% to $4.77 after reporting 15% more website searches, while Avis soared nearly 13% to $139.58 as customers seek alternatives to reach destinations by any means.

Nature piled on. A chaotic weather system hit more than 10,000 travelers nationwide.

Then add March Madness.

ICE didn’t only show up at the airports after the Trump administration deployed ICE agents to help with the shortage of TSA officers.

Keith Gill, NCAA Division I men’s basketball committee chair, told reporters at Front Office Sports, “One of the things that I’ve heard is ICE is taking up a lot of charter planes.”

That’s right. ICE flew over 13,000 charter planes in 2025—including 8,500 detainee transfers and 2,200 deportations, according to the watchdog organization Human Rights First.

TSA Lines Are Improving — But It Is Still a Hit or Miss Situation at Some Airports

Reporters on the ground at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport confirm shorter lines as of March 29. Evening flights move faster than early morning departures. Early flights are still horrendous at the busiest hubs.

• Instagram

Watch this TSA Update at Atlanta Airport via jenhayeslee

Some travelers say the experience is completely different from a week ago. Others land at a different airport and face the same long lines.

Expect airport lines to stay uneven for another one to two weeks. It does not immediately replace the 300-plus officers who already walked out. Those positions take weeks to fill, and every unfilled spot shows up in the security line you stand in tomorrow morning.

At the height of the travel chaos, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson told passengers to arrive six hours early for domestic flights and eight to ten hours early for international departures. Philadelphia International urged travelers to arrive 2.5 hours early for domestic and 3.5 hours for international. Those windows are starting to come down, but do not get comfortable yet.

Carriers canceled more than 1,000 U.S. flights in a single day and delayed roughly 4,200 others, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson saw over 200 cancellations and roughly 450 delays on its worst days. LaGuardia logged more than 450 cancellations, per WABE.

Millions March in “No Kings” Protests 

On Saturday, March 28, 2026, millions of Americans took to the streets across the country. The No Kings Coalition organized the third major wave of demonstrations against the Trump administration since January, rallying against immigration policies and broader governance concerns.

The protests connect directly to what travelers experience at airport checkpoints every week. ICE redirects aviation resources. The DHS funding fight stems from immigration enforcement disputes. Essential personnel work without pay because Congress cannot agree on how to fund the agency that oversees the border.

The movement grows louder as the shutdown hits record-breaking length. Whether that pressure moves Congress to act faster when lawmakers return from recess is the question millions of travelers, workers, and protestors are all asking at the same time.

Congress Leaves Washington for a Two-Week Recess. The Shutdown Is Not Over. Here Is What to Expect.

White House border czar Tom Homan, who oversees border security and immigration policy, told CNN’s Dana Bash that TSA officers struggle without pay. “Well, as soon as Congress opens up the government and funds the Department of Homeland Security, that’s what needs to happen,” Homan said. “TSA officers are struggling. They can’t feed their families or pay rent.”

Bash: If the administration had the authority to move funds all along, why did it take this long?

Homan acknowledged the limits of the executive order plainly. Paying TSA workers does not pay the rest of DHS. The Coast Guard, Secret Service, mission support staff, and ICE officers all sit in different positions. The executive order covers TSA. It does not end the shutdown, and it does not fix DHS as a whole.

Bash: Will ICE agents pull back from airports?

Homan told CNN, “We’ll see.”

That answer does not give travelers or workers much to hold onto.

The executive order buys time. It does not end the shutdown.

Congress left Washington for a two-week spring recess without a deal. The shutdown does not end until lawmakers return and vote on a full DHS funding resolution. There is no guarantee of when that happens.

LET US KNOW: Have you flown through a major airport during the shutdown? Are you a TSA officer finally seeing back pay hit your account — or still waiting? Are you watching the No Kings protests and wondering whether Washington feels any of it? 

The post TSA Employees’ Pay Flowing After Trump Order, But How Long Will Funds Last? first appeared on Upscale Magazine.