Elon Musk pledged Saturday to pay for TSA agents salaries amid the funding impasse in Congress.
WASHINGTON โ The White House rejected Elon Musk’s offer to payย TSA agents during the partial government shutdown, according to multiple media outlets.ย
The Trump administration turned down the offer due to legal concerns, according to CBS News andย The Hill.
โWe greatly appreciate Elonโs generous offer. This would pose great legal challenges due to his involvement with federal government contracts,โ White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement to media outlets Wednesday. โThe fastest way to ensure TSA employees โ and all DHS employees โ get paid is for Democrats to fund the Department of Homeland Security.”ย
Transportation Security Administration officers haven’t been paid since the U.S. Department of Homeland Security partially shut down on Feb. 14. Democrats balked at funding the agency, while other departments are unaffected, demanding changes to immigration enforcement by federal agents following the shooting deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis.
On Saturday, Musk pledged to pay TSA agents salaries amid the funding impasse in Congress.ย
Trump told reporters Monday that he’d “love it” if Musk paid for the TSA workers.ย
“I think its great. Let him do that,” he said to reporters.ย
Why are TSA agents not being paid?ย
Because of the partial government shutdown, TSA agents are not being paid, resulting in people calling out, not showing up for work and more.ย
The TSA’s Ha Nguyen McNeill described the mounting hardships facing unpaid airport workers โ piling up bills and eviction notices, even plasma donations to make ends meet โ and warned that lawmakers must ensure “this never happens again.”
McNeill, the acting TSA administrator, told lawmakers that multiple airports are experiencing greater than 40% callout rates and more than 480 transportation security officers have now quit during the shutdown.
โThis is a dire situation,โ she testified at a House hearing, warning of potential airport closures. โAt this point, we have to look at all options on the table. And that does require us to, at some point, make very difficult choices as to which airports we might try to keep open and which ones we might have to shut down as our callout rates increase.โ
Yet on the 40th day of the standoff involving the Department of Homeland Security, there was no easy way out in sight. Neither Republican senators, who made the latest offer, nor Democrats, who are demanding more changes in immigration enforcement, appeared closer to a compromise.
โSome are sleeping in their cars, selling their blood and plasma, and taking on second jobs to make ends meet, all while being expected to perform at the highest level when in uniform to protect the traveling public,โ she said.
