President Donald Trump announced on his social media platform Thursday that he will sign an executive order instructing newly sworn-in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin to pay TSA workers immediately, calling the ongoing DHS shutdown an "Emergency Situation."
In a Cabinet meeting at the White House earlier Thursday, Trump said that he might have to take "drastic measures" unless the shutdown ended soon.
It is unclear under what legal authority Trump is issuing the order. Congress has the "power of the purse," meaning lawmakers generally direct how federal funding is to be used.
According to a senior administration official, the Transportation Security Administration officers will be paid using money already approved by Congress through President Donald Trump'ssweeping domestic policy billsigned last summer.
"Money provided by President Trump's OBBB will be used to pay TSA," the senior administration official said, referring to the legislation that has been called the "One Big Beautiful Bill."
During the last government shutdown in the fall, the Trump administration also shifted funds around to keep some payments going.
For example, Trump ordered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to use "all available funds" to pay some 2 million service members. The Pentagon later clarified that the money -- about $8 billion -- came out of the Department of Defense's research, development and testing budget. A spokesperson said at the time that the funds were "unobligated" and from the previous fiscal year.
In addition to active duty troops, members of the Coast Guard, which is under the umbrella of DHS, also received paychecks during the last shutdown. Then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem claimed those funds came from the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill.
Advertisement
It is unclear if Trump's order will result in a one-time payment or when the TSA officers can expect to receive the money. It's also unclear what the funding was originally slotted for.
Wrangling over DHS funding continue on Capitol Hill
The announcement came amid continued wrangling on Capitol Hill over DHS funding.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Thursday afternoon that Democrats had Republicans' "last and final" offer to reopen DHS as Congress prepared to leave for a two-week recess on Friday.
Details of the proposal weren't made public.
A test vote on the Senate floor to gauge whether there was enough Democratic support for the Republican proposal to pass was held open for more than six hours before failing by a 53-47 vote, falling short of the 60 votes needed to pass.
Shortly before the vote was called Thursday evening, Senate Republican Whip John Barrasso told reporters, "We've given the Democrats the opportunity to come to the table. They have not. And now, time is up."
Democrats insisted talks were still continuing.
"Our legislative director is literally meeting and passing paper back and forth as we speak," Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz told reporters. "It's just not true that we're not in negotiation. It may be that that one person or the other has lost patience, and you know, that would be too bad, but we're still talking."
ABC News Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.