Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is seeking to bring back his agency’s “entire” workforce after thousands were furloughed due to the partial government shutdown.
The shutdown, now the longest in history, is still ongoing, meaning many federal workers haven’t received paychecks for weeks. But the Department of Homeland Security said Monday it is looking to recall all employees back to work by “utilizing available funding.”
Recommended Stories
“Secretary Mullin will be utilizing available funding to recall the entire DHS workforce to get our patriotic employees back to work,” a DHS spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. “Their paychecks are now being processed, and employees may already be seeing this money deposited.”
The department’s goal of getting employees back to work comes after thousands have called out because they’re not getting paid, impacting airport security and other issues. DHS sent a memo this month to all agency employees stating that by April 16, they would receive back pay dating to Feb. 14, when funding lapsed, according to the Government Executive.
However, that memo did not order furloughed employees back to their jobs, as the latest language from DHS appears to do. Typically, workers allowed to furlough during a funding lapse are those who are not deemed “excepted,” or essential, federal employees.
DHS Chief Human Capital Officer La’ Toya Prieur wrote in an April 10 notice to staff that “all DHS employees … are being returned to a work and paid status,” according to CBS News.
A separate internal message to Federal Emergency Management Agency personnel stated, “All FEMA employees will be placed in exempt status and are expected to report in person to their normal duty station.”
The partial shutdown is a government funding lapse that affects only DHS, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Customs and Border Protection. Some DHS agencies have been impacted little by the shutdown, as they are being internally funded by President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed into law last year. But others have suffered, leading Trump in early April to issue a memorandum ordering Mullin to issue paychecks to tens of thousands of DHS employees.
Mullin said last week that FEMA employees could expect to see those paychecks by Monday.
“We’re going to be able to get everybody paid through pay period six, which is basically all their back pay,” Mullin told reporters in North Carolina.
“A lot of FEMA employees are still owed half of pay period three, four, five, and six,” he said. “We expect most of those checks to be in their banks by Friday. Some of the financial institutions may have to wait on Monday, but the majority of the round be paid by then.”
The shutdown was triggered in February when Senate Democrats refused to renew annual funding for DHS due to concerns about how ICE is operating.
SENATE GOP TO MAKE ‘DOWN PAYMENT’ ON SAVE AMERICA ACT WITH PARTY-LINE BILL
DHS on Monday urged Democrats to “immediately reopen” the agency.
“The easiest way to make sure the hard-working men and women of DHS are paid going forward is for the Democrats to immediately reopen DHS,” a spokesperson said. “For nearly 8 weeks, Democrats prevented many DHS employees from being paid and tens of thousands of employees have been furloughed and not able to do the work that is critical to protecting our homeland.”
