Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, says he will cover the pay of US Transportation Security Administration officers during their second unpaid work stoppage in six months amid a protracted federal funding lapse.
Also on Saturday, President Donald Trump threatened to deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to US airports if congressional Democrats did not immediately agree to fund airport safety.
“I will move our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports where they will do Security like no one has ever seen before,” Trump wrote in a social media post.
The budget impasse over funding for the TSA’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, is in its fifth week. Screeners and other TSA personnel are days away from missing a second full paycheque, but are being pressured to show up as screening times at some airports stretch on for hours.
TSA officers have called in sick in recent weeks as paycheques dried up. The shortage of security agents has led to travel disruptions at major airports.
“I would like to offer to pay the salaries of TSA personnel during this funding impasse that is negatively affecting the lives of so many Americans at airports throughout the country,” Musk said in a post on his social media platform X.
DHS, TSA and representatives for Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Airlines and travel groups say absences among the TSA’s roughly 50,000 airport security officers could increase again this weekend. TSA staffers earn an average of $US61,000 ($A86,759) annually, according to federal data.
Airports are running food drives and accepting donations for security screeners amid the partial US government shutdown.
DHS funding timelines remain uncertain. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said on Friday that bipartisan negotiators have narrowed the remaining disputes over DHS funding, but a deal has not been finalised.
Democrats in Congress in February agreed to fund most of the government in exchange for withholding funds from DHS following the killings of two US citizens in Minnesota by immigration authorities.
Last year, President Donald Trump said a wealthy donor provided $US130 million ($A185 million) to help cover possible military pay shortfalls caused by that government shutdown, which lasted 43 days and was the longest in US history.
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