Donald Trump said he will take executive action to pay 50,000 airport security workers as a deal stalled in Congress to address staff shortages – key US politics stories from 26 March 2026
Donald Trump said on Thursday he will take executive action to pay 50,000 airport security workers as a deal stalled in Congress to address staff shortages that have snarled travel around the country.
The US president said he was instructing the Homeland Security Department “to immediately pay our TSA Agents in order to address this Emergency Situation, and to quickly stop the Democrat Chaos at the Airports. It is not an easy thing to do, but I am going to do it!”
Nearly 500 airport security officers have quit since the start of a partial government shutdown in February, the Homeland Security Department said, as a congressional dispute over the department’s funding forces Transportation Security Administration officers to work without pay.
The US president did not state where the funding to pay the agents would come from, as he tries to remedy nationwide staffing shortages and long lines at airports. Passengers have reported missing flights as they’ve waited for hours in queues in what the acting TSA head has described as the “highest wait times in TSA history”.
