President Donald Trump says he will sign an order directing the Department of Homeland Security to pay TSA workers. The details of Trump’s proposal are still unclear, but Republicans had previously been floating the idea of using the National Emergency Act, which they believe would give the federal government more flexibility to use unspent funds on the TSA.
“Because Democrats have recklessly created a true national crisis, I am using my authorities under the law to protect our Great Country, as I always will!” Trump wrote as part of a long rant Thursday about Social Truth.
“Therefore, I am signing an Order directing Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin to immediately pay our TSA agents to address this emergency situation and quickly stop the Democratic chaos at airports,” the post continued.
“It’s not an easy thing to do, but I’m going to do it! I want to thank our hard-working TSA agents, and also ICE, for the incredible help they have given us at the airports. I will not allow radical left Democrats to hold our country hostage any longer,” Trump wrote.
The Wall Street Journal reported earliest thursday that Republicans on Capitol Hill were thinking about asking Trump to use the National Emergency Act, although it’s hard to say whether that’s the exact mechanism Trump plans to use in his order.
The president frequently engages in behavior that is far from the norm (and sometimes simply illegal), and it can be difficult to decipher what lever he will use for a given action. Trump’s post referred to an order and an “emergency situation,” but he has been known to capitalize on random things in his social media posts.
The TSA is experiencing staffing shortages: 11% of agents called in sick on Wednesday, and some of the hardest-hit airports saw call rates as high as 40%. Security lines at airports have arrived historical lengthswhich extends for hours at the airports in Houston and New Orleans. At least 480 TSA workers resigned last month.
The crux of the issue is funding for DHS, which Democrats in Congress have delayed because they oppose the way ICE and CBP have been used to terrorize immigrant communities. Trump has deployed ICE agents to assist the TSA, which the president positioned as part of an effort to rehabilitate the “false image” given to them by Democrats in a Truth Social post on Wednesday.
The Wall Street Journal notes that Trump’s use of the National Emergency Act would likely face court challenges, since federal spending must be approved by Congress. But it’s hard to imagine Democrats rushing to the courts too quickly. After all, Democrats are the ones who have been proposing legislation that would only fund the TSA and not ICE or CBP.
If Trump follows through with this and doesn’t try to give additional funding to ICE as well, it would appear that the Democrats got what they wanted. At least for now.
