The Trump administration is doubling down on its plans to keep paying some frontline federal law enforcement employees during the government shutdown, while many civilian government workers risk missing their first full paycheck next week.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted on X on Thursday afternoon that more than 70,000 federal law enforcement officials — including employees from Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Secret Service, as well as federal air marshals and other “critical mission areas” will be paid for all hours worked during the shutdown.
Noem wrote that these federal law enforcement employees will receive a “super check” by Oct. 22 that covers shutdown days already worked without pay, their overtime and their next pay period.
“President Trump and I will always stand by law enforcement, and we are keeping our promise to always support them by making sure they are paid during the Democrats’ shutdown,” Noem said.
A DHS spokesperson said in a statement Friday that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will ensure that these 70,000 employees “will be having their pay covered during the Democrats’ government shutdown.”
The spokesperson said CBP border patrol agents, ICE deportation officers, Secret Service special agents and Transportation Security Administration air marshals are specifically covered by this announcement.
The budget reconciliation bill, which was signed into law this summer, gave DHS additional funds and few conditions on how to spend that money.
Reuters first reported DHS’ plans to keep paying frontline federal law enforcement personnel.
But even with these extraordinary measures in place, many employees at national security and law enforcement agencies will apparently keep working without pay until the shutdown ends.
The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents CBP customs employees, said CBP officers will continue to be paid during the shutdown, but other agency employees won’t be paid on time.
“This is welcome news for these law enforcement officers who staff our nation’s 328 ports of entry and have worked without interruption during this shutdown,” NTEU National President Doreen Greenwald said in a statement. “However, this decision does not apply to other CBP employees who also do vital work facilitating international trade and travel and other federal employees who work every day to serve the American people.”
DHS is moving money around to pay federal air marshals working for TSA, but a TSA spokesperson said in a statement that TSA officers are not covered under Noem’s announcement, “as they are not law enforcement officers.”
Geddes Scott, president of the American Federation of Government Employees NY/NJ VA Council 246 and a retired Department of Veterans Affairs nurse, said many of the veterans showing up for VA healthcare appointments work as federal law enforcement officials, and are concerned about missed paychecks.
“A lot of the veterans we take care of work at these different agencies, whether it’s DHS, Border Patrol, Bureau of Prisons or TSA. When they’re not getting paid, it affects their mental health,” Scott said. “When they show up to my facility … you can see the mental toll it takes on those individuals.”
Scott said he recently spoke with two Bureau of Prisons employees, both of them veterans, who raised concerns about not being paid on time during the lapse. One just had a baby, the other recently bought a car.
“You see the life in them is being sucked out, because of this political fight that’s going on, that they didn’t sign on for,” he said.
The Trump administration is not going to these lengths to keep civilian federal employees working during the shutdown from missing a paycheck.
Many federal employees received their first partial paycheck last Friday, and are set to miss their first full paycheck later this month.
“We got the people that we want paid, paid,” President Donald Trump said at the White House on Wednesday.
The Defense Department started the trend this week by repurposing $6.5 billion in unspent research and development funds to keep active-duty service members from missing a paycheck on Wednesday.
But House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) told reporters on Friday that the same ad-hoc process won’t be an option to cover their next paycheck, if the shutdown continues.
“I do want you to know that that option is not going to be available in two weeks for their next paycheck,” Rogers said. “We have 2 million service members that were able to get paid this week because of President Trump’s creativity. These are families that are serving around the world. Many of them in very unfavorable conditions, making huge sacrifices for our freedom and safety, and most of them live paycheck-to-paycheck.”
Rogers said that 500,000 civilian federal employees will miss their first full paycheck next week, “and then the rest of them the week thereafter.”
“This is going to get really painful for a lot of civilian employees. Obviously, I think about the DoD civilian employees. But throughout the federal workforce, people will start missing their first paycheck next week and the week after,” Rodgers said.
On Wednesday, FBI Director Kash Patel told reporters at the White House that the Trump administration had taken steps to ensure that the bureau’s more than 13,000 special agents will be paid during the shutdown.
However, other FBI and Justice Department employees — including attorneys representing the Trump administration in federal court — continue to work without pay.
Meanwhile, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts said federal courts, starting Oct. 20, “will no longer have funding to sustain full, paid operations.”
“Until the ongoing lapse in government funding is resolved, federal courts will maintain limited operations necessary to perform the Judiciary’s constitutional functions,” the office said in a statement Friday.
Federal judges will continue to work, but court staff may only perform certain excepted activities during the remainder of the shutdown.
“Each appellate, district, and bankruptcy court will make operational decisions regarding how its cases and probation and pretrial supervision will be conducted during the funding lapse,” the notice states.
If you would like to contact this reporter about recent changes in the federal government, please email [email protected], or reach out on Signal at jheckman.29
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