by
MANDEL
NGAN/AFP
via
Getty
Images)
As
the
DHS
funding
lapse
drags
on,
American
airports
are
buckling.
TSA
agents
haven’t
been
paid
for
six
weeks
and
are
calling
out
sick
in
record
numbers
—
some
airports
have
more
than
a
third
of
staff
MIA,
and
more
than
500
TSA
agents
have
quit
altogether.
This
weekend
saw
hours-long
security
lines,
with
travelers
arriving
four
hours
early
and
still
missing
their
flights.
Trump’s
first
brain
wave
was
to
send
in
ICE
agents,
who
are
getting
paid.
Turns
out
a
squad
of
untrained
thugs
whose
main
job
is
civil
rights
violations
weren’t
much
help.
Senate
Republicans
begged
him
to
sign
a
partial
DHS
bill
that
would
have
funded
TSA
but
not
ICE
and
CBP,
but
he
insisted
that
they
ought
to
kill
the
filibuster
instead.
And
so
President
Fire
Alarm
did
what
he
always
does:
Shout
“EMERGENCY!”
and
then
claim
the
power
to
break
the
law.
On
Friday,
he
signed
an
executive
order
instructing
newly
minted
DHS
Secretary
Markwayne
Mullin
to
pay
TSA
agents,
despite
the
fact
that
there’s
no
money
appropriated
to
do
it.
Decrying
“congressional
Democrats’
reckless
decision
to
prioritize
criminal
illegal
aliens
over
American
citizens,”
Trump
ordered
Mullin
to
“to
use
funds
that
have
a
reasonable
and
logical
nexus
to
TSA
operations
to
provide
TSA
employees
with
the
compensation
and
benefits
that
would
have
accrued
to
them
if
not
for
the
Democrat-led
DHS
shutdown,
consistent
with
applicable
law,
including
31
U.S.C.
1301(a).”
Usually
Trump
just
gestures
vaguely
in
the
direction
of
Article
II
of
the
Constitution
and
claims
the
power
to
command
the
sun
to
rise
in
the
west,
so
perhaps
he’s
due
one
muted
cheer
for
pointing
to
the
actual
code.
But
that
statutory
cite
is
quite
a
head-scratcher.
Section
1301(a)
says
only
that
“Appropriations
shall
be
applied
only
to
the
objects
for
which
the
appropriations
were
made
except
as
otherwise
provided
by
law.”
Trump
is
specifically
ordering
DHS
to
apply
appropriations
to
objects
for
which
they
were
not
made
—
effectively
citing
the
rule
he’s
breaking
as
justification
for
breaking
it.
CNN
reports
that
Trump
intends
to
siphon
off
cash
for
TSA
from
the
deportation
slush
fund
in
the
One
Big
Beautiful
Bill
Act
(OBBBA),
which
is
keeping
ICE’s
goons
paid
during
the
DHS
shutdown.
Congress
appropriated
that
$75
billion
for
ICE
and
CBP
specifically
as
multi-year
or
no-year
funding,
which
doesn’t
expire
at
the
end
of
the
fiscal
year
and
isn’t
subject
to
the
annual
appropriations
cycle.
So
when
DHS
funding
lapsed
in
February,
ICE
and
CBP
kept
spending
because
they
had
a
separate,
still-active
pot
of
money
that
the
shutdown
couldn’t
touch.
The
theory
here
is
that
airport
security
has
a
“reasonable
and
logical
nexus”
to
border
operations
—
a
test
that
appears
nowhere
in
the
statute,
nowhere
in
relevant
caselaw,
and
that
the
White
House
invented
wholesale
for
the
occasion.
But
maybe
if
you
take
several
shots
of
Everclear
and
squint
real
hard,
working
the
X-ray
belt
in
Toledo
counts
as
border
patrol
activity
and
can
be
paid
for
out
of
OBBBA.
Sadly,
Tom
“Cava”
Homan
was
still
sober
Sunday
morning
when
he
sat
down
with
CNN’s
Jake
Tapper,
protesting
that
he
was
but
a
simple
policeman,
who
knows
nothing
about
the
law.
There
is
no
universe
in
which
the
OBBBA
funds
can
legally
be
used
to
pay
TSA
agents.
The
Antideficiency
Act
bars
federal
agencies
from
obligating
or
spending
funds
before
they
are
appropriated
or
in
excess
of
the
amount
approved
by
Congress.
And
putting
in
your
executive
order
that
you’ll
“adjust
applicable
funding
accounts
within
DHS”
once
Congress
appropriates
money
for
TSA
doesn’t
fix
the
problem.
Under
the
Constitution,
Congress
has
the
power
of
the
purse.
The
Trump
administration
has
systematically
disregarded
this,
ignoring
congressional
appropriations
and
ordering
the
shutdown
of
everything
from
Voice
of
America
to
the
Institute
of
Museum
and
Library
Services.
Particularly
in
this
moment,
Democrats
have
an
affirmative
obligation
to
use
all
their
leverage
over
the
budget
to
control
how
tax
dollars
are
spent.
Right
now,
Democrats
want
an
agreement
that
ICE
and
CBP
will:
quit
pretending
that
administrative
warrants
it
signs
for
itself
are
the
same
as
judicial
warrants;
take
off
the
masks
and
put
on
badges
that
identify
them;
and
quit
conducting
raids
in
sensitive
locations,
like
hospitals,
churches,
and
schools.
Trump
wants
to
keep
doing
those
things,
and
he’s
pretending
that
he
can
cancel
out
Congress’s
leverage
with
accounting
tricks.
And
so
it’s
a
bit
disappointing
to
see
Democrats
asking
why
Trump
didn’t
steal
the
money
—
and
their
own
power!
—
sooner.
“Tom
Homan
did
an
excellent
job
of
dodging
your
question
earlier
in
the
show
when
he
said
that
he
doesn’t
know
why
Trump
didn’t
start
paying
the
TSA
agents
sooner
if
they
had
the
authority
all
along,”
New
Jersey
Senator
Andy
Kim
replied.
“Well,
I
know
the
answer
to
that.
The
American
people
know
it’s
because
he
didn’t
care
about
them,
that
he
cared
about
ICE.
He
cares
about
his
efforts
to
antagonize
and
assault
the
American
people
in
our
communities.”
Senator
Kim
is
great,
but
this
answer
is
terrible.
The
reason
Trump
didn’t
steal
the
money
sooner
was
because
it’s
flatly
illegal
and
he
was
hoping
Congress
would
buckle
and
give
him
the
money
with
no
strings
attached.
When
Democrats
used
their
leverage
to
make
the
shutdown
unpleasant,
he
rejected
any
compromise
and
effectively
kicked
over
the
table.
By
validating
that
gambit
and
complaining
only
about
its
timing,
Democrats
are
giving
up
their
own
power
to
get
ICE
under
control.
As
Senate
Majority
Leader
Thune
admitted,
Trump’s
illegal
order
“takes
the
immediate
pressure
off”
Republicans
to
negotiate
with
Democrats,
allowing
everyone
to
leave
town
for
a
two-week
recess
without
getting
screamed
at
in
the
airport.
Obviously,
TSA
workers
deserve
to
be
paid.
But
the
law
requires
them
to
be
paid
by
an
act
of
Congress,
not
a
presidential
raid
on
border
security
funds.
Framing
the
debate
as
a
question
of
why
the
president
didn’t
steal
the
money
faster
is
like
a
little
old
lady
tut-tutting
at
a
mugger
for
failing
to
snatch
her
handbag
at
a
reasonable
hour.
Congress
has
the
power
of
the
purse,
and
they
need
to
keep
socking
that
mugger
in
the
nose
when
he
tries
to
grab
it!
Liz
Dye produces
the
Law
and
Chaos Substack and podcast. You
can
subscribe
by
clicking
the
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