(WASHINGTON) — Transportation Security Administration officers received their first paychecks in more than a month on Monday, TSA workers told ABC News.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees TSA, told ABC News in a statement on Monday that most employees will receive at least two full paychecks for the past two pay periods.
DHS also said there might be slight delays in some receiving their paychecks due to “financial institution processing times or issues with their direct deposit.”
It remains unclear if TSA employees will receive any pay going forward and there have been reports of some not getting paid if they called out.
Payments came after President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum on Friday asking for DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to work with the Office of Management and Budget to use funds “that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations” to pay the agency’s workforce. The TSA employees will be paid through funds allocated by Trump’s sweeping domestic policy bill signed last summer, according to a senior administration official.
TSA employees have been required to work the entire 45 days of the partial shutdown, which began Feb. 14. TSA officers told ABC News that they missed bill payments and got second jobs to pay ends meet. Union representatives described to ABC News stories of officers having to pull their children out of day care and, in some cases, getting eviction notices because they can’t pay their rent.
“It was a partial pay with ample deductions taken out along with taxes,” Yolanda Keaton, a TSA officer at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, told ABC News on Monday. “We did not receive all of our backpay … A lot of officers paychecks are very very short and not everyone received their pay today.”
Addressing reports from some TSA officers about missing portions of their paychecks, Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement to ABC, “We are working aggressively with USDA’s [United States Department of Agriculture] National Finance Center to complete processing for the half paycheck they are owed from pay period 3 as soon as possible.”
According to a government website, the USDA helps to manage payroll for more than 590,000 federal employees.
It is unclear what legal authority Trump issued Friday’s order under, and the White House hasn’t responded to ABC News’ request for comment.
Speaking prior to Trump’s move, Paul Uecker, a TSA officer at Duluth International Airport and Vice President of Greater Minnesota American Federation of Government Employees Local 899, told ABC News about the hardship people at the agency have endured.
“I know of at least one officer at MSP (Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport) who quit because they were having eviction processes started against them,” Uecker said on Friday. “They needed to find a way to get some money so that they could hopefully avoid that.”
Federal employees experienced the longest full shutdown in the nation’s history — 43 days — last fall. TSA officers told ABC News that they had depleted their savings after the last shutdown and were not fully recovered when the partial shutdown began in February.
Senate Democrats vowed to block funding for DHS until reforms are made to Immigration and Customs Enforcement following the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by federal law enforcement.
The Senate came to a deal on Friday morning to fund DHS, excluding appropriations for immigration enforcement, but the House Republicans rejected it. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, said his party will instead push for a short-term bill to fund the entire department for 60 days.
The House passed the 60-day short-term bill, but the Senate didn’t. Congress is now on a two-week spring recess and will not return for a vote until April 13.
“I feel like they’re playing with our lives,” Oksana Kelly, a TSA officer at Orlando International Airport and mother of two, told ABC News on Thursday. “We all have children. We all have parents that, you know, people [to] take care of. It’s not just some random officers. It’s real people.”
Also speaking before Trump’s memo, Kelly and her husband Deron are both TSA officers who have been working without pay during the shutdown and said they have depleted their savings because of both shutdowns. Deron had to take a second job as a DoorDash driver, according to Kelly.
She was tearful when she described her inability to give their 7-year-old son the birthday party that he wanted at a trampoline park.
“This is probably the hardest thing I have to do,” Oksana Kelly told ABC News as she wiped away tears. “He’s like, ‘Is this something we’re doing?’ And we’re like, ‘Sorry buddy, you know this birthday is going to be at the community park because Mommy and Daddy can’t afford the trampoline park.'”
Trump deployed ICE agents to airports around the country last Monday to assist TSA officers with long lines at security checkpoints. Some officers told ABC News that the ICE personnel were not doing anything to address those lines because they aren’t trained in screening passengers and baggage. TSA officers get about six months of training to do their jobs, according to employees who spoke to ABC News.
“They’re outside the security area, watching as people are coming in, watching as people are coming out. We were told that they were supposed to be there to offer us assistance, and there’s been no assistance,” Maggie Sabatino, a TSA employee at Philadelphia International Airport, told ABC News on Wednesday. “Standing around and just watching, it’s not helping us. It’s putting us on edge, like we’re waiting for something to happen. We’re afraid of something happening.”
TSA saw the highest call-out rates of the shutdown on Thursday with more than 3,450 officers out, according to newly released numbers from TSA. George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston was the worst, with a callout rate of 44.4%. The second worst was Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where Keaton works.
Keaton, who is also a steward for AFGE Local 554, told ABC News last Monday about a colleague of hers who is a single mother.
“She has a child that she has to face every day. It’s hard for her to smile with her child when she doesn’t know where their next meal is going to come from,” Keaton told ABC News. “She doesn’t know if she’s going to keep her apartment because she’s had eviction notices.”
ABC News’ Sam Sweeney, Luke Barr, Emily Chang, Nicholas Kerr, John Parkinson, Isabella Murray and Jeana Fermi contributed to this report.
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