Trump administration Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem handed out $10,000 bonus checks to over 20 TSA officers at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport on Thursday, making good on President Donald Trump’s offer to provide bonuses to the air traffic controllers who worked without pay during the government shutdown.
Several thousand TSA workers will receive the bonuses, according to NBC News, and the recipients were highlighted for their dedication to their jobs during the record-breaking 43-day shutdown. Trump first suggested in a Truth Social post that air traffic controllers who worked through the shutdown for no pay should receive a $10,000 bonus “for distinguished service to our Country,” and airport workers who took time off of work “must get back to work, NOW!!!”
“What I’m here talking about today is the outstanding patriotism and service of our TSA officers and officials that stepped up every single day to make sure that those individuals at our airports and at our transportation systems continue to be safe and secure,” Noem, whose department oversees the TSA, said Thursday at a press conference. “They went above and beyond. They helped individuals. They served extra shifts. They helped with transportation of people getting back and forth to work.”
Trump signed a stopgap funding bill to temporarily reopen the government late Wednesday night, ending a historic shutdown and allowing agencies to resume business as usual through Jan. 30. Kevin Hassett, the White House economic adviser said Thursday furloughed federal workers can expect their back pay to land in their bank accounts “probably early next week.”
Despite the reopened government, air travel could still see delays. Airlines for America announced Monday “there will be residual effects for days” as flight schedules attempt to return to full capacity. As of Thursday, flight restrictions were frozen at 6% — the same reduction amount as Tuesday — showing improvement over the previously projected 10% restrictions by Friday.
Trump mentioned giving air traffic controllers bonus checks in a Monday evening interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, “The ones that stayed, of which there were a lot of them, I’m sending them a $10,000 bonus.”
Ingraham asked where the money would come from, to which Trump replied that he would get it from “someplace regardless.”
“I don’t know. I’ll get it from someplace… I always get the money from someplace regardless, it doesn’t matter,” Trump said on the Ingraham Angle. “I do a lot of bonuses for people because it’s really something that… It’s like the American way, when you think about it.”
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