WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday signed a promised executive action that will pay Transportation Security Administration employees, after a deal that sought to do the same stalled in Congress.
Trump signed the action with an eye toward easing long security lines at many of the nation’s top airports.
“America’s air travel system has reached its breaking point,” Trump said in the memo authorizing the payments. He added, "I have determined that these circumstances constitute an emergency situation compromising the Nation’s security.”
Trump said his administration would use “funds that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations” for the payments.
In a statement Friday, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said TSA workers “should begin seeing paychecks as early as Monday.”
On Thursday night, as lawmakers grappled with the issue, a senior administration official said the money would come from the tax bill Trump signed last year. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss it publicly. They compared the move to actions Trump took during a past shutdown to pay troops.