Trump’s DHS Pay Scheme Breaks Law to Dodge Shutdown Fallout

When Congress refused to approve funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) this February, nearly all DHS employees were left working without pay. To prevent the political nightmare of airport security lines grinding to a halt and Coast Guard operations stalling, President Donald Trump stepped in on April 3 with a questionable fix. He issued a memorandum directing DHS and the Office of Management and Budget to tap into funds “that have a reasonable and logical nexus to the functions of DHS” to pay employees and issue back pay.

The money Trump’s administration is raiding comes from a $10 billion pot set aside in last year’s massive budget reconciliation bill, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). This fund was explicitly allocated for safeguarding U.S. borders—not for domestic airport security or disaster response agencies like FEMA and CISA. Yet TSA screeners and other DHS workers are being paid from this border security fund, a move experts say is legally dubious.

Government watchdogs and appropriations specialists warn this violates the Antideficiency Act (ADA), a law designed to uphold Congress’s “power of the purse” by prohibiting federal agencies from diverting funds from their intended purposes. Former Senate Budget Committee and OMB staffer Bobby Kogan called this a “clear ADA violation.” The Trump administration has a recent history of such violations, having previously misused research and development funds to pay military personnel during the government shutdown last October.

The ADA is supposed to be enforced by agency heads reporting violations to the President and the Government Accountability Office (GAO). But with Trump directing the violation and Republican-controlled Congress showing no appetite to challenge it, enforcement is effectively neutered. Although breaking the ADA carries criminal penalties, no one has ever been prosecuted, especially when violations are deliberate.

Meanwhile, DHS is rapidly burning through this $10 billion fund, which is set to run dry by the end of the week. Congress is scrambling to end the funding lapse, with the Senate advancing budget reconciliation to bypass the 60-vote filibuster and approve DHS funding for the remainder of the fiscal year and beyond. However, disagreements remain, particularly over immigration enforcement funding levels and unrelated issues like Iran war funding.

Even so, relying on reconciliation to fund DHS undermines congressional oversight. The proposed Senate framework would fund agencies like ICE and Customs and Border Protection for over three years—far longer than the usual one-year appropriations cycle—and without the usual oversight language restricting agency actions. This hands these agencies a blank check, shackling future Congresses regardless of political control.

This brazen executive branch overreach and Congress’s failure to check it strike at the heart of the constitutional balance. The power of the purse is Congress’s key tool to hold the presidency accountable. By ignoring this principle, the current administration and its allies in Congress are eroding the democratic structure designed to prevent authoritarianism.

We’re watching a dangerous precedent unfold: the president unilaterally redirecting funds to skirt political consequences, Congress abdicating its budgetary responsibilities, and a government run increasingly without regard for the rule of law. The only question left is how much more damage this unchecked power grab will inflict before the American people demand accountability.