The White House warned Congress late Tuesday that money to pay Department of Homeland Security personnel will soon run out, putting a fresh clock on the House vote homeland security budget fight set for Wednesday. The Office of Management and Budget said the funding President Donald Trump has used through executive actions to keep TSA and other workers on the payroll will be exhausted by May.
The warning landed just as the House was expected to vote on the Senate budget resolution, which passed in an all-night session last week and is meant to clear the way for full DHS funding. Homeland Security has been operating without regular funds for more than two months, and the stakes are immediate: DHS salaries total more than $1.6 billion every two weeks, a pace that leaves little room for delay.
In its memo, the Office of Management and Budget said DHS would soon run out of critical operating funds, placing essential personnel and operations at risk. It said restoring funding for the department has never been more urgent, a line that underscored how quickly the shutdown-like lapse has moved from a budget dispute to a payroll problem.
The strain is showing most clearly at the Transportation Security Administration. More than 1,000 TSA officers have quit since the shutdown began, according to Airlines for America, which on Wednesday called on Congress to fully fund the agency. The group said the urgency to provide predictable and stable funding for TSA is growing stronger by the day, and added that aviation workers and customers have repeatedly been hurt by Congress’ failure to do its job.
The money gap has played out unevenly across Homeland Security. Immigration enforcement workers have largely been paid through some $170 billion that Congress approved last year as part of Trump’s tax cuts bill, while other DHS workers, including TSA, have depended on the president’s intervention to keep checks going.
The budget fight has also been slowed by the broader politics surrounding immigration. Democrats have refused to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol without changes to those operations, while House Republicans have been stalled by internal disputes over several pending issues, including Homeland Security funding. The administration has warned GOP lawmakers not to make changes that could prolong passage.
What happens next is now plain: if the House does not move quickly, the department’s emergency patchwork of funding will run into the same wall that Congress has been circling for weeks. Wednesday’s vote is no longer just about a budget resolution. It is about whether DHS workers keep getting paid before the money runs out.