Choked on a Shutdown, Thousands of DHS Employees Late for the Longest Paycheck in US History
JAKARTA - Thousands of employees of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are still affected by late payment due to the partial shutdown of the US Government or shutdown which has entered its sixth week.
A glimmer of hope for DHS employees to receive their salaries came when the US Senate approved a budget to pay all the arrears of DHS employees, including its subordinate US Transportation Security Administration (TSA), through a bipartisan bill, in a meeting on Friday morning, March 27 local time.
However, after being brought to the US House of Representatives, negotiations came to a stalemate. Republican leaders in the House of Representatives rejected the short-term funding bill, with House Speaker Mike Johnson calling it a "joke."
At the executive level, US President Donald Trump also briefly planned to direct US Government money to DHS, or directly to the DHS-funded TSA agency, but the policy changed because Trump ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to guard US airports affected by the shutdown.
As airport operations are increasingly affected, Trump then signed a memo on Friday night, March 27, ordering the DHS to pay the TSA employee's two-time salary for the delay.
In his instructions, Trump ordered DHS Chief Markwayne Mullin to send funds "that have a reasonable and logical relationship to TSA operations" to pay TSA employees' back wages and allowances.
However, it is unclear where the budget source is to allocate funds for the payment, and the legal question is the ambiguity of the US presidential order to the DHS.
Consequences of Late Salary
DHS, the fourth largest agency in the US Government, has about 193,867 employees or 9.4 percent of the total federal workforce in the US, the longest delayed salary from the US Government's temporary shutdown policy, surpassing last year's shutdown which lasted for 43 days.
Today, Tuesday, March 31, DHS employees have been experiencing a 45-day delay in their salaries.
On Friday, March 27, The Guardian reported that this salary delay made thousands of TSA employees funded by DHS, whose daily duty is to check the safety of passengers at US airports, many of whom did not go to work or were absent.
Before this action of missing due to late salaries, passengers on planes at US airports had been affected. They had to queue for hours to get on the plane.
Airport authorities in the US then issued an appeal to passengers to arrive early to prevent long lines at the check-in.
Major airports including Baltimore, Houston, and New York City have seen hours-long lines in recent days, especially in the morning.
According to DHS spokeswoman Lauren Bis, more than 3,560 TSA employees, or more than 12 percent of the agency's workers, did not show up for work or were absent.
Bis added that more than 500 TSA officers have resigned and thousands of others are not going to work "because they can't afford to buy or pay for basic necessities such as gas, child care, food, or housing."
Emergency Airline Salary Delayed
Airline leaders and airport executives in the US have made direct appeals to urge lawmakers to act on at least one of the existing bipartisan proposals on this issue.
"Congress has the power to end this dysfunction once and for all, and must use every legislative means to achieve this goal," the Modern Skies Coalition said in a joint statement on Sunday, March 29.
Chris Sununu, president and CEO of the main trade organization for the leading passenger and cargo airlines in the US, Airlines for America, wrote in an opinion in the Washington Times at the weekend, urging the US Congress to "sit down together immediately".
"Enacting legislation that will prevent more frustrated passengers, crowded airport terminals, and fundraising. Right now, members of Congress are just sitting on their hands and doing nothing with three worthy bipartisan bills that can prevent this mess," said Sununu, who is also a former Governor of New Hampshire.