TSA Workers Finally Receive Back Pay Amid DHS Shutdown

By Sydney Johnson

An executive order was made by Trump to pay TSA workers amid the partial DHS shutdown. However, the shutdown is still ongoing.

Courtesy of The Seattle Times

The House of Representatives met on April 9th at 11:30 AM, but a solution has not been found to end the longest government shutdown in history. 

Representatives in the House and Senators continue to battle over regulations regarding ICE agents and DHS operations across the country. Democrats have been fighting for DHS reforms, such as the new spending bill excluding ICE from the expenses, because of incidents such as the two civilians shot in Minneapolis by ICE agents.

Despite this, Republicans have not let up, resulting in the current situation.

Back pay checks were issued to TSA employees on Monday, according to the Secretary of Homeland Security; however, the damage has already been done to these civilians.

In an interview with PBS, a TSA worker, Angela Grana, described how many workers like her have been financially handicapped by the shutdown and cannot get back on their feet despite the back pay.

“There's a lot of finance charges and late fees. And we're still trying to get ourselves out of the last shutdown, where, if we took a loan there against anything that we had, that -- you couldn't take another loan because you already had one outstanding…We don't understand why the politicians can't serve the American people and fix this issue.”

Workers who chose to resign during the shutdown will receive back pay for their time, but are not able to get their jobs back. This shutdown, along with the previous one, has been detrimental to many people's lives, and many will not be able to recover.

Senate Republicans plan to cut Democrats out of the process entirely and meet with President Trump alone to discuss the budget. According to Senator Barrasso, the Democrats are described as an “incredible obstruction” despite Republicans being the party to not approved any new budget changes.

“The shutdown has just been going on for way too long. It's not fair that the people in Congress make these decisions when they are not affected the way we are,” said Aniya Hunte, a Hampton University student.