By Emily Russell

Travelers could again face longer lines at airport security checkpoints next month if Congress doesn't figure out a way to fund the Department of Homeland Security this week.

The federal government is on track to run out of emergency funds used to pay some DHS workers during the past month of the department's 73-day shutdown, including Transportation Security Administration employees that staff airport screening lines.

President Donald Trump had allocated $10 billion in emergency funds for DHS employees in executive orders in March and April. But DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin told Fox News last week that those funds are set to run out in early May.

Mullin said his department's payroll for 270,000 employees is a bit over $1.6 billion every two weeks, and that as of last week, the emergency fund had less than $1.4 billion remaining. Paying workers through another executive order is off the table, he said in the interview.

DHS and the White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Without another executive order, Congress will have to find a way to fund DHS before next week, or lengthy airport lines will likely resume as workers start calling out of their shifts again -- rather than work without pay.

Before Trump signed executive orders to pay workers, more than 11% of TSA officers called out of work at the shutdown's peak. At some airports, that number was closer to 50%. Security line wait times stretched for more than four hours at major airports, such as George Bush Intercontinental in Houston.

And since the DHS shutdown began on Feb. 14, more than 1,100 TSA workers, or roughly 2.2% of the staff, have quit their jobs. Several hundreds of those quits came after the president signed executive orders to pay workers.

The House is currently deliberating a bill passed by the Senate on April 2 that would fund DHS minus Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol. The Senate needed to remove ICE and CPB from the bill to get Democrats, who want to see reforms made to immigration enforcement made before agreeing to funding the sub-agencies, on board.

But ICE remains a sticking point for a small group of House Republicans who don't want to see it split off into a separate bill. They may not approve the measure until the Senate passes a separate bill to fund ICE and CBP via reconciliation. The Senate is still in the early stages of that process.

A union official representing the TSA told CNN on Tuesday that there is a 50-50 chance TSA workers will be paid next week. Congress will be out of session next week, so both chambers would have to pass funding measures by Friday for workers to be guaranteed pay in early May.

Airport security chaos could resume just as travelers have to cope with higher airfare. Delta Air Lines and United Airlines have both raised ticket prices due to jet fuel price rises caused by the Iran war. Airlines are also cutting back on flights to offset fuel prices.

Write to emily.russell@barrons.com.

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April 28, 2026 13:04 ET (17:04 GMT)

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