TSA agents to soon go without pay, and the White House won’t bail Dems out

Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees are on the verge of working without pay and have no backup plan to ensure they don’t miss their checks.

Last year, during the longest government shutdown in history, the White House managed to divert funding from the GOP’s “big, beautiful bill” to keep service members paid. But TSA workers will not receive the same treatment.

More than 60,000 TSA workers will receive partial paychecks this week for work they did before the funding expired earlier this month. They won’t get another paycheck until Congress reaches a deal to fund the agency.

And this is unlikely to be completed sooner rather than later.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R.S.D.) said that if the Trump administration “could absolutely find a way to pay government employees.”

“I mean, these are people who have jobs, they have commitments, they have families,” Thune said. “And you know, if we get to a point where I hope we don’t do that, if we get to a point where people aren’t getting paid because Democrats continue to insist on changes to things that aren’t feasible or acceptable, that would be really unfortunate.”

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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, DY, and his group have remained firm on their stance as the DHS shutdown enters its 14th day. (Nathan Posner/Anatolia via Getty Images)

But a White House official told Fox News Digital that the Trump administration could direct funds, such as the 43-day shutdown, “to cover certain employees at DHS funded by the bill, namely law enforcement and active-duty military such as the USCG.”

“TSA was not a part of this because they have a different funding stream than other agencies,” the official said.

Republicans believe what would make a significant difference in the shutdown could be longer lines at airports and flight cancellations starting to rise as workers go without pay and take leave. A similar scenario occurred during the previous shutdown, where cancellations increased day by day.

“When people start missing paychecks and experiencing travel disruptions, this is going to become increasingly painful,” Thune said. “So it would be nice to fix that upfront and avoid all of this, but we have to have a partner who really wants to do a deal.”

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Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R.S.D.) once again tried to introduce a full-year funding bill to reopen the Department of Homeland Security but was blocked for a second time by Senate Democrats. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

The White House and Senate Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (DY), are at odds over finding a compromise agreement to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and hopes for a quick resolution to the ongoing shutdown have faded quickly this week.

Both sides have rejected mutual offers for the past two weeks. Senate Democrats have argued that whether the agency will reopen and whether TSA workers will get paid is, for now, in the hands of the White House and Republicans.

Senate Democrats stated that the negotiations have completely stalled and put the responsibility for further talks on the Trump administration.

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“We told them what our priorities were, and they responded with a very, very weak and limited response,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. “We said, ‘No, that’s what we wanted. We made a few changes,’ but there was no response.”

“Not yet,” Murray said when asked if he believed the White House was negotiating in good faith.

But Senate Republicans said talks among members were ongoing.

Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., hoped to convince enough Senate Democrats to ensure TSA agents and others won’t go without pay for the foreseeable future.

“I try to talk to people,” Britt said.

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