Source: Fortune
Summary
The partial government shutdown has left over 50,000 TSA officers without pay, leading to over 450 workers quitting and thousands calling out of work. Meanwhile, ICE agents have been ordered to U.S. airports to guard exits and check IDs, and they continue to receive pay. The disparity in pay between the two groups has highlighted the differences in their salaries, with TSA agents earning between $34,454 and $163,000, while ICE agents can earn up to $84,277 plus a $50,000 signing bonus. The American Federation of Government Employees has claimed that ICE agents are unqualified to replace TSA officers and has demanded that TSA agents be paid.
Our Reading
The numbers tell one story.
ICE agents are getting paid while TSA agents are not, despite both being under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security. The reason lies in their funding sources, with ICE receiving funding from Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, while TSA is funded through DHS, which has ceased funding. The disparity in pay has highlighted the differences in their salaries, with ICE agents earning more than TSA agents. The situation has also raised concerns about the arbitrariness of who gets paid and who doesn’t during a government shutdown.
The announcement sounds familiar.
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, has demanded that TSA agents be paid, rather than replaced by untrained ICE agents. The situation has also been criticized by the Cato Institute, which has called funding under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act “shutdown proof”.
The strategy enters a familiar phase.
The government shutdown has led to a breakdown in the budget structure, with the decision of who is deemed essential and nonessential depending on department personnel. The situation has been described as a “feature as well as a bug” by public finance expert Linda Bilmes.
One sentence that reframes the situation: The government shutdown has exposed the cracks in the system, where some employees are deemed essential and get paid, while others are left without a paycheck.
Author: Evan Null
