DHS warns it will run out of money to pay airport security workers in coming weeks

By Tami Luhby, Alexandra Skores

Washington (CNN) — Long security lines could reappear at airports next month after the Department of Homeland Security secretary warned Tuesday the agency doesn’t have enough money to continue to pay its employees through May.

DHS has been shut down since mid-February, and the resulting lapse in paychecks prompted many Transportation Security Administration officers not to come to work, causing several weeks of major disruptions at multiple US airports. Late last month, President Donald Trump directed DHS to use funds from the Republicans’ sweeping domestic policy package, called the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” to pay the TSA officers and other agency staffers.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday money would run out by early May.

The agency is drawing on the $10 billion fund created by the bill, which as of April 19 has a little less than $1.4 billion remaining, according to Office of Management and Budget data.

“That money is dried up, if I continue down this path, the first week of May, because my payroll at DHS is just over $1.6 billion every two weeks,” Mullin said. After the next paycheck, which is scheduled for the end of this week, “there is no more emergency fund, so the president can’t do another executive order for us to use money, because there’s no more money there.”

Congress, meanwhile, is struggling to find a way out. With Democrats’ uniformly opposed to fully reopening DHS without major changes to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Republicans have pivoted to trying to fund the department’s immigration enforcement operations separately – and then go back to funding the rest of DHS with Democrats help.

But the actual funding measure remains stalled in Congress, with Democrats refusing to support any DHS bill with immigration enforcement money. That’s left Republicans scrambling to come up with an alternative plan – and still no timeline for when they’ll reopen DHS.

This week, Senate GOP leaders formally declared they will attempt to circumvent Democrats in the stalemate over DHS funding and deliver as much as $70 billion for immigration enforcement on their own.

However, it’s not a guaranteed win. Passing legislation in this manner, known as reconciliation, is an arduous process, requiring the cooperation of nearly every Republican in both chambers to proceed.

The new proposed funding would ensure the immigration agencies are funded through the remainder of Trump’s term — eliminating the sticking point with Democrats.

A union official representing TSA workers told CNN on Tuesday that he expects employees to be paid this week. And there’s a 50-50 chance they’ll receive the following paycheck on or around May 8, said Johnny Jones, secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Government Employees’ TSA Council 100.

Asked whether TSA workers would continue to be paid, a DHS spokesperson pointed to Trump’s order.

“At the direction of President Trump and Secretary Mullin, TSA will use every available means to pay our workforce and ensure travel remains secure for the millions of Americans who have been impacted by this shutdown,” the spokesperson said in a statement to CNN. “Until Democrats in Congress agree to fully fund DHS and end this unprecedented shutdown, President Trump will continue to use available funds to pay TSOs as the Democrat shutdown rages on.”

Other DHS employees received their back pay earlier this month. But it’s unclear whether they will be paid this week since they received a memo in early April indicating they should not submit time cards for this coming paycheck until they receive further guidance.

DHS did not answer CNN’s request for more information about whether these staffers will be paid.

Federal employees are guaranteed to receive back pay once the shutdown ends, according to a 2019 law, but getting by until then can be hard.

During the more than 60 days since DHS funding lapsed, many TSA workers have struggled, according to their union. Some did not come into work since they couldn’t afford gas to get there, or childcare for their children. Other TSA agents missed rent or mortgage payments, couldn’t pay for food or other expenses.

More than ​838 TSA ⁠officers have quit since mid-February, according to TSA.

Security lines stretched for hours in March, throughout some airports and into parking lots, causing some passengers to miss their flights altogether. The wait times were some of the longest in TSA’s history.

At the same time, the agency has temporarily closed or limited services like Global Entry and PreCheck, warned that airports could close if there were not enough security to operate checkpoints, and brought in ICE agents to assist with screening passengers.

The repeated lapse in funding comes just months after last fall’s 43-day long government shutdown that left TSA and the Federal Aviation Administration’s air traffic controllers and radar technicians among the government employees working without pay.

The head of the union representing many DHS workers urged the House to approve the bill to fund the agency.

“Failure to pass this bipartisan compromise before Friday, April 24 guarantees that Transportation Security Officers, civilian Coast Guard employees, and FEMA professionals will go unpaid unless the administration steps in, as it did last month,” Everett Kelley, AFGE’s national president, wrote in a letter to House lawmakers on Tuesday.

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CNN’s Sarah Ferris contributed to this report.