TSA Workers Receive Back Pay — Airport Wait Times Plummet From 4+ Hours to Under 30 Minutes

On March 30, TSA workers began receiving back pay covering roughly four weeks of missed wages after Trump signed a presidential memo directing DHS and OMB to pay TSA officers from available departmental funds. The effect was near-immediate: wait times at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson fell from over 90 minutes to under 3 minutes; Houston Bush Intercontinental dropped from 90 minutes to 9 minutes. LaGuardia still reported 2+ hour waits that morning but normalized by afternoon. The DHS shutdown itself remained unresolved — now in its 45th day, officially the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history — as the Senate briefly convened on March 30 but departed for a two-week recess through April 13 without considering the House-passed stopgap. Border Czar Tom Homan stated ICE agents deployed to airports would remain until TSA returned to full operational strength. TSA had lost over 500 officers to attrition since the shutdown began February 14.