Will Trump’s order fix the TSA crisis at airports? |
Will Trump’s order fix the TSA crisis at airports?
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▪ TSA agents to start getting paid
▪ Iran war passes one-month mark
▪ Graham takes flak from the right
▪ House Republicans set retirement record
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees may finally get some relief on Monday after President Trump signed an executive order to pay the 50,000-strong airport workforce despite the ongoing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown.
Officials are hoping the restoration of TSA employees’ pay will be enough to lure those who have been calling out back to work, easing the long lines and wait times facing travelers. But it’s not clear how quickly that will happen.
Some major airports continued to advise passengers to show up four or more hours before flights over the weekend. TSA call-out rates topped 10 percent nationwide Saturday, a slight drop from the high reached on Friday. Several major airports had a quarter or more of their staff call out.
White House border czar Tom Homan said he was unsure whether federal immigration officers would leave airports once TSA agents start getting paid again.
“It depends [on] how many TSA agents come back to work, how many TSA agents have actually quit and have no plans [on] coming back to work,” he told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” on Sunday.
Homan said he is working with TSA officials to determine what airports need, and TSA agents should expect to be paid Monday or Tuesday.
“They can’t feed their families or pay their rent. Your heart goes out to them because they’re sitting there right now, working very hard and not being paid, while members of the Congress are now on vacation, are getting paid,” he said.
Trump’s order will reportedly tap into funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that he signed last year.
Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) said on Sunday the move is illegal.
“If there’s one power that Congress has, it is the power of the purse,” he told Margaret Brennan on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.”
“So they shouldn’t be paid?” Brennan asked.
“No, they should be paid,” Himes said. “They should have never been held hostage. And we had a deal come out unanimously from the Senate that if it had passed right now, they would be getting paid, and we wouldn’t be talking about the constitutional power of the purse.”
Trump’s order came as it became clear that a Senate-passed bill to fund key DHS agencies including TSA, the Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency would fail to advance in the House.
GOP lawmakers in the lower chamber took issue with funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol being left out of the legislation, instead passing a short-term bill to fund all of DHS for eight weeks.
But that bill is considered dead on arrival in the Senate, with Democrats opposed to funding ICE without substantial reforms to the agency. And with both chambers of Congress out of town for the next two weeks for Easter recess, efforts to address TSA staffing issues will largely depend on the White House.
▪ The Hill: GOP divisions illustrated in shutdown fight.
▪ Business Insider: Airport chaos not going away.
3 Things to Know Today
Trump said he would allow a Russian oil tanker to deliver crude oil to Cuba, essentially relaxing a blockade that has sent the island into an energy crisis. Cuba has been facing blackouts affecting the entire country in recent weeks as it struggles to gain access to oil and natural gas.
North Korea has tested a missile that it claims can reach the U.S. mainland, state media reported Sunday. Experts said they believe Pyongyang could be bluffing, though North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has been openly pushing to acquire missiles with greater capabilities that can reach the U.S.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee criticized Israeli police for blocking the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem from entering a church where Christians believe Jesus rose back to life. The Israeli prime minister’s office later said the patriarch would be allowed to enter.
A MONTH OF WAR: The war in Iran has now passed the 30-day mark as the conflict escalates and pressure rises for Washington and Tehran to reach a ceasefire deal.
Trump said days after the initial U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran that the operation would last at least four to five weeks but could be shorter or longer. Proposals traded between the U.S. and Iran haven’t made any progress toward dialing down the conflict, and the war has shown signs of expanding in recent days.
The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen waded into the conflict Saturday........