Trump Signs Order to Pay TSA Workers

President Trump is stepping around Congress to get airport security workers paid. He signed a directive on Friday ordering the Department of Homeland Security to pay TSA employees, reports the Wall Street Journal. Details were not immediately clear on when the money would move. Technically, Trump doesn't appear to have signed an executive order: Bloomberg and the Hill use the term "memo." Either way, the move comes after a measure to solve the DHS funding impasse stalled in Congress.

"America's air travel system has reached its breaking point," Trump said in the memo authorizing payments, per the AP. It directs the White House budget director and the DHS chief to find federal funds that have a "reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations" to pay TSA workers, who have gone unpaid for six weeks. The memo describes the situation at airports round the US as an "unprecedented emergency."