TSA Workers Stopped Getting Paid — Then Trump Signed an Order That Raised More Questions Than It Answered
Trump signed an emergency EO to pay TSA workers using "Big Beautiful Bill" funds as airport delays mount — but critics say Congress, controlled by his own party, caused the crisis.
HIGH ALERT
A potential Iran ceasefire order, a TSA payment crisis resolved by executive action, oil above $116, and a fresh 165-page J6 legal filing — multiple major concurrent stories hitting simultaneously.
Key Developments
Here's something that doesn't happen every day in American politics: **the people screening your bags at the airport stopped getting paid**.
Not because of a hack. Not because of a bureaucratic glitch. Because Congress — controlled by Trump's own Republican Party — couldn't pass a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security. [11]
And then Trump signed an executive order to fix it.
That's the story today. And it's more complicated than it looks.
Let's start with the facts.
TSA workers — the agents who run your carry-on through the scanner, check your boarding pass, and keep the nation's airports running — have been working without paychecks. Reports on X put the number of agents who quit at **500 and climbing**. [16]
Lines at airports stretched to historic lengths. Travelers faced some of the worst delays in TSA history.
The White House moved fast.
On Friday, Trump signed an emergency executive order directing DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to redirect funds and get TSA agents paid — leveraging money from what the administration calls the "One Big Beautiful Bill." [19]