Partial government shutdown starts to hit TSA workers’ paychecks

By Tami Luhby, CNN

(CNN) — Transportation Security Administration workers will receive only a portion of their next paycheck, which they are set to receive as soon as Friday, according to a union official. The reduced pay comes as the partial government shutdown ends its second week with no resolution in sight.

The impasse could lead to staffing shortages and airport delays for some travelers, especially the longer TSA workers go without pay. (Air traffic controllers, however, are not affected by this partial shutdown.)

The agency is also making some changes to at least one trusted traveler program, temporarily halting the Global Entry program. Earlier this week, the Department of Homeland Security announced it would also suspend the popular TSA PreCheck program but then reversed that decision.

While some DHS workers are continuing to be paid, many other employees throughout the agency are also set to receive partial paychecks soon unless Congress acts. Most affected workers will only be paid for the second week of February in their next checks since the agency’s funding lapsed as of February 14.

These smaller paychecks will be the last many DHS employees receive until Congress comes to an agreement to fund DHS for part or all of the fiscal year, which ends September 30. The White House and Democrats have been negotiating reforms to the agency’s immigration enforcement operations after two US citizens were fatally shot by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis in January. Senate Democrats are demanding changes before they’ll support appropriating more money for DHS.

Many TSA employees are already starting to struggle financially, concerned about how they’ll afford their March housing costs and day care, among other expenses, said Johnny Jones, secretary/treasurer of the American Federation of Government Employees TSA Council 100, the union representing 46,000 uniformed TSA workers.

“You’re going to see TSA officers in food bank lines in a couple of days,” he said, adding that several colleagues have taken out payday loans.

In total, about 61,000 TSA employees must remain on the job at the nation’s more than 430 commercial airports during a shutdown. Many live paycheck to paycheck, Ha Nguyen McNeill, a senior official performing the duties of TSA administrator, said in written testimony for a House subcommittee hearing before the funding lapsed.

Overall, more than 90% of DHS’ 272,000 employees will continue working during a lapse, according to the agency’s September shutdown plan covering the first five days of an impasse. More than 93% of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and US Customs and Border Protection workers will remain on the job.

Only about 44,500 staffers will continue to be paid through other appropriations, according to the shutdown plan.

DHS has other resources to draw on, including a $165 billion infusion from last summer’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which funneled $75 billion to ICE, alone, and $64 billion to CBP.

The president’s signature policy bill gives DHS Secretary Kristi Noem wide-ranging power to move money around to carry out the agency’s operations.

DHS is using funds from the package to pay nearly 58,000 CBP employees, including officers and border patrol enforcement personnel, according to an email sent this week by the National Treasury Employees Union, obtained by CNN.

Last fall, Noem said that 70,000 law enforcement personnel, including in CBP, ICE and other divisions, would receive their paychecks amid that shutdown.

Civilian Coast Guard workers will receive about half their paycheck on or around March 2, according to a FAQ posted by the division. Military Coast Guard members received a full paycheck on February 15, the FAQ said.

Noem said Coast Guard members would continue to be paid, according to a spokesperson for Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican from New York, who had raised concerns with President Donald Trump last week. Military personnel are scheduled to get their next paycheck on Friday. (It’s unclear whether civilian employees will also continue to receive full paychecks.)

DHS referred questions on pay to the White House Office of Management and Budget, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Federal employees are guaranteed to receive back pay once the shutdown ends, according to a 2019 law.

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