A Donald Trump memo on Friday ordering the Department of Homeland Security to “provide each and every employee of D.H.S. with the compensation and benefits” they’d have earned if the department weren’t shut down looks good on paper but is worthless without congressional approval.
According to MS NOW's Hayes Brown in an article called Trump’s DHS paycheck promise is a major problem, Trump's memo is a political sleight of hand designed to score points while avoiding congressional responsibility. "Until Congress says otherwise, the Department of Homeland Security doesn't have the money to make good on this promise."
Trump is setting another dangerous precedent that threatens the balance of power in America. By promising to pay DHS employees out of money Congress never appropriated, the president is claiming executive authority that doesn't exist.
The memo builds on an earlier directive ordering Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and OMB chief Russ Vought to find the money for TSA backpay by redirecting funds from other agency accounts. The administration has never publicly explained which funding streams were actually tapped — though it's possible ICE and Border Patrol budgets were raided to cover the costs.
"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," the earlier memo instructed.
Friday's new memo is equally vague about which accounts will be plundered to pay more than a quarter-million DHS employees. It merely declares that once Congress restores funding, "every effort should be made" to "adjust applicable funding accounts within DHS" to essentially make it like this whole thing never happened.
The financial shell game was already troubling when limited to TSA workers. Applying the same logic to the entire DHS workforce — without any new appropriation from Congress — is a constitutional breach that can't be accepted as settled.
Here's the fundamental problem: there is no presidential American Express card. Trump cannot spend money Congress hasn't appropriated, no matter how many memos he signs or how politically appealing the gesture appears.
The White House is betting no one will challenge this power grab. After all, who wants to sue to recover money from FEMA staffers? But that political calculation shouldn't prevent defending constitutional safeguards. "The safeguards that prevent the Treasury itself from becoming an at-will checking account for the executive branch should be defended at all costs."