The Longest Shutdown in U.S. History: TSA Gets Paid, but 200,000 Federal Workers Still Wait

On March 30, most of the Transportation Security Administration's 61,000 employees opened their bank accounts and found something they hadn't seen in over five weeks: a paycheck [1]. The retroactive payments, covering at least two full pay periods, followed a presidential memorandum signed three days earlier declaring that the TSA staffing crisis constituted "an emergency situation compromising the Nation's security" [2]. Airport security lines that had stretched past four hours at some hubs began to shorten within days [3].

But the Department of Homeland Security shutdown that forced TSA officers to work without pay since February 14 has not ended. At 45 days and counting, it is now the longest government shutdown in American history [4], surpassing even the 43-day full government shutdown that ended just weeks before it began. Tens of thousands of Coast Guard civilians, FEMA staff, and cybersecurity workers at CISA remain unpaid, and Congress left Washington for a two-week recess without resolving the underlying standoff [5].

How the Staffing Crisis Unfolded

TSA officers — classified as "excepted" federal workers — are legally required to report to work during a funding lapse, even without pay. For the first week, most did. The agency's baseline absenteeism rate of roughly 2% barely budged [6].

By the third week, the rate had tripled to 6%. By March 27, it hit 12.4%, with approximately 3,560 officers absent nationwide [6]. More than 500 officers resigned outright between February 14 and late March, a staffing loss that will take four to six months to replace given TSA's training requirements [7].

Source: CBS News / TSA Oversight Testimony

Data as of Mar 31, 2026CSV

The absenteeism was not evenly distributed. JFK International Airport in New York saw 21% of its TSA workforce call out at the peak. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, the world's busiest airport by passenger volume, hit 19%. Houston's William P. Hobby Airport reached 18% [7].

Source: CBS News / TSA Data

Data as of Mar 27, 2026CSV

The consequences for travelers were immediate. Some airports recorded the longest security wait times in TSA's history, exceeding four and a half hours [8]. New Orleans' Louis Armstrong International advised passengers to arrive at least three hours before departure [3]. Airlines began proactively rebooking passengers who missed flights due to security delays [9].

The Trump administration deployed hundreds of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to 14 airports to assist with queue management and ID verification, though ICE agents did not conduct actual security screenings [10]. White House border czar Tom Homan suggested the ICE presence might continue even after TSA officers were paid [11].

The Funding Workaround: Legal Creativity or Dangerous Precedent?

The mechanism that allowed TSA workers to receive back pay mid-shutdown is unusual — and contested. Rather than passing a continuing resolution or standalone appropriations bill, President Trump signed a memorandum directing the Office of Management and Budget to tap a $10 billion fund from the "One Big Beautiful Bill" Act, signed on July 4, 2025 [2]. That legislation allocated $190.6 billion to DHS through fiscal year 2029, including $75 billion for ICE and $64 billion for Customs and Border Protection, primarily for border-safeguarding missions [12].

TSA is not explicitly mentioned in the bill's border-safeguarding provisions. The legal theory rests on the DHS Secretary's discretion to determine what activities have "a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations" under the broader border security umbrella [2]. DHS Acting Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Lauren Bis confirmed that "most TSA employees received a retroactive paycheck today that included at least two full paychecks" on March 30 [1].

The same funding mechanism was used to pay ICE sworn officers, CBP officers, Secret Service agents, and Coast Guard military personnel [13]. But Coast Guard civilians, FEMA staff, and CISA employees were left out — creating a two-tier system within a single department where some workers are paid and others are not [13].

Critics from both parties have raised concerns about the precedent. If the executive branch can unilaterally redirect previously appropriated funds to pay workers during a shutdown, Congress loses one of its primary tools to force negotiations: the visible suffering of unpaid federal employees and the public services they provide [14]. Defenders counter that the alternative — allowing airport security to collapse — posed an unacceptable risk to national safety [2].

A Record-Breaking Shutdown, Built on a Familiar Fight

The DHS funding lapse began February 14, 2026, after Congress failed to agree on immigration enforcement provisions attached to the department's appropriations bill [5]. Eleven of the twelve federal appropriations bills had been finalized; only DHS remained [15].

Source: NBC News / CRS

Data as of Mar 31, 2026CSV

The Senate passed a bill in an overnight voice vote that would reopen most of DHS but exclude ICE and parts of CBP — a non-starter for House Republicans [16]. The House passed H.R. 7147, which would fund all DHS agencies at current levels through May 22, but the Senate rejected it [17]. Both chambers then left for recess, leaving the shutdown unresolved [5].

The political dynamics are further complicated by the fact that a separate, broader government shutdown lasting 43 days had only recently ended. That shutdown, which began in late October 2025 when Congress failed to pass any FY2026 appropriations, was resolved for all agencies except DHS [4].

Comparing the 2026 Crisis to 2018-2019

The 2018-2019 partial government shutdown, which lasted 35 days over a dispute about border wall funding, remains the most commonly cited precedent. During that episode, TSA call-out rates reached approximately 10% at some airports [18]. The current shutdown exceeded that mark, hitting 12.4% nationally and over 20% at specific airports [6][7].

A key difference: in 2018-2019, the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act had not yet been signed into law. That legislation, enacted in January 2019, guarantees federal employees will receive back pay after a shutdown ends — but does not require payment during the shutdown itself [19]. Federal contractors, notably, remain excluded from back pay guarantees entirely [19].

The 2026 episode is the first time a president has used executive authority to pay a specific group of excepted workers mid-shutdown, bypassing the normal appropriations process. Whether this sets a replicable precedent depends on future administrations having similarly broad discretionary funds available [2].

The Workers Still Waiting

While TSA officers' paychecks have resumed, the broader DHS workforce picture remains grim.

Approximately 272,000 DHS employees were affected by the shutdown. Nearly 92% continued working in an excepted status [15]. As of March 31, these groups remain unpaid:

Coast Guard civilians have seen all missions suspended except national security and protection of life and property. Routine patrols and fisheries enforcement have stopped. Military families face housing and utility disruptions [20].

FEMA has been unable to process payments for non-disaster grants and some disaster grants. Billions in appropriated funds sit unspent. Coordination with state and local emergency management partners has deteriorated [20].

CISA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, continues operating with unpaid staff at a time when the agency is responsible for defending federal networks and election infrastructure [20].

The average TSA officer earns between $53,000 and $60,000 annually, with entry-level screeners starting at roughly $34,500 before locality adjustments [21]. Across 61,000 employees working without pay for over five weeks, the cumulative back pay owed exceeded $1 billion before the presidential memorandum was signed [1].

Why Only America?

Government shutdowns of this kind are essentially a uniquely American phenomenon among developed democracies [22]. The structural reason is the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches, combined with the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits federal agencies from spending money without congressional appropriations [23].

In parliamentary systems like those of the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, a government that cannot pass a budget typically faces a vote of no confidence and new elections — not a cessation of services [22]. The UK uses "votes on account" to provide advance funding while budget debates continue. Australia's constitution includes a "double dissolution" provision: if the Senate rejects a budget bill twice, a full federal election is automatically triggered [22]. Most European countries operate under frameworks where the previous year's budget remains in effect until a new one is passed [23].

The United States' vulnerability traces to 1980, when Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti issued legal opinions interpreting funding gaps strictly, establishing that agencies generally may not spend money without appropriations [23]. Before those opinions, funding lapses were common but government operations typically continued uninterrupted [23].

The Union Fight for Permanent Protections

The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union, has been fighting the shutdown on multiple fronts. In the case of AFGE v. Noem, filed in U.S. District Court in the Western District of Washington, the union alleged First Amendment retaliation, Fifth Amendment due process violations, and Administrative Procedure Act violations [24].

On January 15, 2026, Judge Whitehead ruled that TSA had "plainly" violated an existing court order by attempting to dissolve the union a second time, and ordered TSA to notify all officers that the 2024 collective bargaining agreement remains binding [25]. On February 26, however, the Ninth Circuit vacated the preliminary injunction, ruling AFGE had not demonstrated a likelihood of success on its retaliation claim — though the panel unanimously confirmed federal district court jurisdiction, a significant procedural victory [24]. A trial is scheduled for September 2026 [24].

On the legislative front, the Shutdown Fairness Act (S.3012) would guarantee that federal employees, military members, reservists, and contractors receive regular paychecks on time during any shutdown [26]. The bill has bipartisan co-sponsors but has not advanced to a floor vote. Proponents argue that removing workers as "political hostages" would make shutdowns less attractive as leverage tools and could reduce their frequency [14]. Opponents contend that guaranteed pay would eliminate the political pressure needed to reach quick resolutions [14].

The evidence on whether mid-shutdown pay actions lengthen or shorten funding gaps is limited and mixed. The Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, which guaranteed back pay after the fact, has not measurably deterred subsequent shutdowns — the U.S. has experienced three since its passage, including the two longest in history [4][19]. Whether real-time pay during shutdowns would produce a different dynamic remains untested beyond the current TSA episode.

What Comes Next

The immediate airport crisis has eased. TSA absenteeism dropped from 12.4% to 10.6% within days of back pay arriving, and the agency expects rates to continue declining [6]. But the underlying shutdown persists with no clear resolution path. Congress is in recess until mid-April. The House and Senate remain far apart on immigration enforcement provisions [5][16].

More than 200,000 DHS employees outside the TSA remain in limbo — working without pay, uncertain when their next paycheck will arrive, and watching as their colleagues at the same department receive retroactive compensation through a legal workaround that may not extend to them [13].

The 2026 DHS shutdown has already set the record for duration. The question now is not just when it will end, but what precedents it will leave behind — for executive authority over appropriated funds, for the treatment of federal workers during funding lapses, and for a political system that has normalized governing by crisis.