WASHINGTON, March 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed a presidential memorandum to pay Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents, who have been working without pay and facing rising absenteeism since the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over a month ago.
"Since the shutdown began, nearly 500 transportation security officers have left their positions, and thousands more have begun to call out sick at record rates due to lack of pay. As a result, security wait times at some airports have reached untenable lengths of three or more hours," the memorandum read.
Trump blamed Democrats for the partial shutdown, which continues into its sixth week. "Currently, more than 60,000 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees, including approximately 50,000 transportation security officers who perform security functions at domestic airports, are not being paid due to congressional Democrats’ reckless decision," the memorandum said.
"Accordingly, I hereby direct the Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, to use funds that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations to provide TSA employees with the compensation and benefits," it said.
DHS said on X that TSA has immediately begun the process of paying its workforce. "TSA officers should begin seeing paychecks as early as Monday, March 30," according to the department.
The latest development came as House Republican leaders rejected a Senate-passed bill that would fund most of DHS, including the TSA. The bill would not provide funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol, as Republicans and Democrats remain at an impasse over Democrats’ demands for reforms to immigration enforcement operations.
Democrats have called for reforms to ICE operations following the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis in January, but Republicans have rejected the demands, resulting in a deadlock in negotiations. Against that backdrop, DHS funding expired on Feb. 13.
This has left the department’s functions -- including TSA, the Coast Guard, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency -- crippled.
Over the weekend, Trump and White House border czar Tom Homan said that ICE agents would assist at busy airport security checkpoints amid the partial shutdown. The measure took effect on Monday.
On Wednesday, Acting TSA Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill told a House Homeland Security Committee hearing that wait times at U.S. airport security checkpoints had reached the longest levels in the 24-year history of the TSA amid the prolonged DHS shutdown, with some exceeding four hours.
Several major airports are seeing absenteeism rates of 40 to 50 percent among TSA workers, McNeill said. "This level of disruption is unprecedented and unacceptable, and significantly undermines the security of U.S. transportation systems."
原文地址：http://en.people.cn/n3/2026/0328/c90000-20441050.html