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WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he planned to issue an executive order declaring a national emergency to compel the Department of Homeland Security to pay TSA agents amid a six-week shutdown of DHS that has caused long lines at airport security checkpoints.
“It is not an easy thing to do, but I am going to do it!” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform TruthSocial. “I want to thank our hardworking TSA Agents and also, ICE, for the incredible help they have given us at the Airports. I will not allow the Radical Left Democrats to hold our Country hostage any longer.”
Politics: Trump Rejects John Thune's DHS Funding Proposal To End Shutdown: Report
The Senate had been negotiating all week to pass legislation funding DHS, which has been shuttered since Feb. 14, along with some reforms to ICE, as Democrats had demanded following the death of two Americans by federal immigration agents earlier this year. Those talks stalled on Thursday, prompting Trump to intervene after appeals from Senate Republicans.
Democrats had for weeks sought to pay TSA agents while negotiations continued over broader DHS funding and reforms to ICE, but those bills were repeatedly blocked by GOP senators.
Earlier on Thursday, as the situation at airports worsened, Sen. John Kennedy (R-Ky.) announced he was drafting legislation to pay TSA workers, essentially breaking with his Republican colleagues, who had repeatedly blocked similar bills offered by Democrats.
“It’s not fair to the TSA folks,” Kennedy told HuffPost, referring to the shutdown. “It’s not fair to the American people. So I’m going to offer a bill that just opens up TSA. I think my Republican colleagues will support it. I don’t know about my Democrat colleagues.”
Politics: GOP Senator Admits Trump Blocked Deal To Partially Fund DHS For Stunning Reason
But Kennedy never got a chance to bring his bill to the Senate floor, as GOP leaders held off on a vote on a broader funding measure for five hours, effectively blocking Kennedy from seeking unanimous consent to pass the bill. It’s not clear how Republicans would have responded to Kennedy’s request after objecting to previous Democratic attempts to pay TSA agents. Kennedy’s move came as something of a surprise.
Before Trump’s announcement, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told HuffPost he thought lawmakers should figure out funding for all of DHS, not just TSA.
“Because look, if we do it for TSA, then we’re going to jump right to FEMA, or we’re going to jump to Coast Guard,” Tillis said.
It’s unclear what legal authority Trump has to circumvent Congress, which broadly controls federal spending. During the previous government shutdown late last year, Trump similarly directed the Pentagon to pay servicemembers using previously appropriated funds for research and development. It’s possible Trump will draw on funds Republicans approved last year in his One Big Beautiful Bill, which the administration has used to pay active duty Coast Guard and some other DHS employees during this shutdown.
Trump’s decision to pay TSA workers by claiming emergency powers prompted questions from Democrats, who wondered why he didn’t do so earlier to prevent the chaos at airports from occurring in the first place.
“So you agree that it was an option the whole time?” Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) wrote in a post online.
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