Former President Trump signed an executive order to pay the 50,000-strong Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees, despite the ongoing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown. Officials are hoping the restoration of TSA employees’ pay will lure those who have been calling out back to work, easing the long lines and wait times facing travelers. However, it’s not clear how quickly that will happen. Some major airports continued to advise passengers to show up four or more hours before flights over the weekend. TSA call-out rates topped 10 percent nationwide Saturday, a slight drop from the high reached on Friday.

Former President Trump’s order will reportedly tap into funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that he signed last year. Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) said on Sunday the move is illegal. “If there’s one power that Congress has, it is the power of the purse,” he told Margaret Brennan on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.” Himes added, “No, they should be paid. They should have never been held hostage. And we had a deal come out unanimously from the Senate that if it had passed right now, they would be getting paid, and we wouldn’t be talking about the constitutional power of the purse.”

Trump’s order came as it became clear that a Senate-passed bill to fund key DHS agencies, including TSA, the Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, would fail to advance in the House. GOP lawmakers in the lower chamber took issue with funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol being left out of the legislation, instead passing a short-term bill to fund all of DHS for eight weeks.

With both chambers of Congress out of town for the next two weeks for Easter recess, efforts to address TSA staffing issues will largely depend on the White House. The situation at airports, as indicated by The Hill's publication, reveals divisions within the Republican party amid the government shutdown struggle.

In other matters of interest, Trump allowed a Russian oil tanker to deliver crude oil to Cuba, essentially relaxing a blockade that has sent the island into an energy crisis. North Korea tested a missile that it claims can reach U.S. territory. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee criticized Israeli police for blocking the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem from entering a church.

The war in Iran has now passed the 30-day mark, as the conflict escalates and pressure rises for Washington and Tehran to reach a ceasefire deal. Trump suggested that his priority is gaining control of Iran’s oil industry. A possible military operation to extract nearly 1,000 pounds of uranium from Iran is also being considered. Meanwhile, the foreign ministers of Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey met in Islamabad to discuss efforts to de-escalate the conflict.

On the domestic front, a vote on extending temporary legal protections for migrants from Haiti is expected. FBI Director Kash Patel is reportedly pushing to release investigative files on Rep. Eric Swalwell and his interactions with a suspected Chinese spy.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is hoping to seize momentum from the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) as he continues to push for Trump’s endorsement in his Senate primary runoff. A record number of House Republicans are choosing to either retire or run for other offices this cycle, adding to the complications facing Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) as he tries to hold on to a narrow Republican majority.

Finally, comedian Bill Maher will be awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, in an event expected to be the last at the Kennedy Center before it closes for renovations.