It was good news, but not for them.
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As word spread through the federal bureaucracy Monday that Transportation Security Administration workers were getting some back pay, a collective gloom descended on a Coast Guard administrative office, a Coast Guard worker, who asked not to be identified told NBC News.
Like the TSA agents who man security checkpoints at airports across the U.S., thousands of civilian Coast Guard workers have also been working without pay during the more than a monthlong partial government shutdown.
“Don’t get me wrong, we’re very happy for the TSA workers,” the worker said. “As soon as we heard they were being paid, there was all kinds of chatter in the office. There was certainly some, I would say, big feelings among the staff. But what we were feeling, more than anything, was forgotten.”
Nobody, the worker said, is coming to their rescue.
Facing a nationwide backlash from both TSA workers and frustrated air travelers, President Donald Trump last week ordered the Department of Homeland Security to pay the TSA workers what they were owed.
But Trump’s order was just a temporary fix for the TSA workers and did not cover the thousands of other DHS staffers who have also been required to show up for work even though they are not being paid.
The group includes civilian Coast Guard workers, Federal Emergency Management Agency workers, and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency employees.
On Sunday, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees slammed Congress for leaving Washington for the Easter/Passover break without reaching an agreement on funding DHS.
“I have never been more disgusted by the failure of elected leadership in my life,” AFGE President Everett Kelley said in a statement.
“Congress left them without a paycheck and went on a two-week paid vacation on our dime,” he said.
The Coast Guard worker who spoke with NBC News said even though they knew their TSA colleagues were about to get some back pay, it was still jarring when it happened on Monday.
While Coast Guard military workers have been getting paid throughout the shutdown, the last full paycheck their civilian counterparts received was on Feb. 16, and they received a partial paycheck on March 2, according to the Coast Guard.
“We didn’t even get a half payment on March 2,” the worker said via email. “Payroll paid half of our gross salary with full deductibles. So our net pay was LESS than half. And nothing since then.”
How have they been surviving without a steady paycheck?
“Many of our banks have offered interest-free loans,” the worker said. “CGMA (Coast Guard Mutual Assistance) is offering help. But sometimes being told to go look up those resources sounds like our leaders are telling us to go away or that they aren’t sure how to help. And I get it, none of us are prepared for this. It’s just awful.”
Some of the Coast Guard civilian workers are moonlighting.
“At least in my line of work, they have to apply for permission for outside employment and it’s a whole process to make sure the outside job doesn’t conflict with their regular duties,” the worker said.
But there are some workers who are looking to get out of the Coast Guard altogether, although reluctantly, because most are proud to work for the Coast Guard.
“We are all looking for new jobs,” the worker said. “Right now I have a whole spreadsheet of IOUs to people who have been helping me through this, and I have no idea how long we’re going to be working without pay. So I am looking, too. I don’t want to leave, but I have no choice.”
Asked what kind of support it is providing for its civilian workers, the Coast Guard’s chief spokesperson, Lt. Cmdr. Steve Roth, sent a link to a shutdown resources page for workers.
“The Coast Guard cannot provide assurances, nor comment on pending legislation,” Roth said in an email.
The crisis started in February after Republicans rebuffed repeated demands by Democrats, angered by the killings of two Americans in Minneapolis by federal immigration agents, to rein in two agencies that are also part of DHS, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. The two sides were unable to come up with an agreement by the funding deadline, resulting in the shutdown of DHS.
The Trump administration and Republicans have blamed the Democrats for the plight of the TSA and other DHS workers.
Democrats have accused the Trump administration and Republicans of using DHS workers as political pawns to avoid making changes to ICE policies that Americans are demanding.
Trump last week stepped in with a Band-Aid solution for struggling TSA workers. But his order didn’t apply to other essential DHS workers.
Cameron Cochems, Idaho regional vice president for AFGE TSA Local 1127, has been using his position as a union leader to speak out about the shutdown as many federal workers are worried about putting their jobs at risk by speaking publicly. Though he is a TSA worker, Cochems hopes it brings attention to other federal employees in the same situation.
“The TSA is just the easiest like thing to look at, you know, and when I speak about these things, I feel like I’m also trying to speak on behalf of them, too,” Cochems said. “As other federal employees, I think of them as my co-workers.”
There’s no clarity on what will happen for future TSA paychecks, but the airport in Boise, Idaho, where Cochems works has stopped the food bank and gift card programs as if the shutdown has ended. But the back pay did not resolve the financial struggles many of his co-workers have gone through, Cochems said.
Some of Cochems’ colleagues are still actively looking for other jobs, and at least one has to find a new place to live after her landlord refused to re-sign her lease after missed rent payments, he said. Cochems described it as a “traumatic” experience with lasting emotional damage.
“It was really hard, not knowing when your next paycheck was going to be, having what felt like the whole country looking at you guys with, like, a week’s notice,” Cochems said. “Going from the people that no one even looks at the airport to being center stage, I thought that was just such a crazy experience.”
A TSA worker who just collected his first paycheck in more than a month told NBC News that he feels bad for the unpaid Coast Guard and other DHS workers but that there isn’t public pressure to help them because “they don’t have a public-facing role.”
“I think the only reason we got paid was just for optics, because it was starting to look really bad,” said the TSA worker, who, like the Coast Guard worker, asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution.
The scarcity of TSA workers and the long lines of frustrated travelers trying to get through airport security checkpoints were visible reminders of the ongoing crisis to the American public, he said.
“And the lines were getting just egregious in some of these cities,” he said. “So I think this was just a patchwork to kind of help with the court of public opinion, more so than earnestly wanting us to, like, be OK.”
Another TSA worker, this one based in Indiana, said he is grateful that he got his back pay, but said that paying them was “just quieting down the loudest part of the problem.”
The TSA worker said the money he received was barely enough to pay some of his bills and that he estimates that by April 10 he’ll be out of money again.
Meanwhile, he’s hoping a deal to fund DHS will be reached before he has to make some hard decisions about his family’s future. And he’s reading the political tea leaves as best as he can.
“I’ve never had a job where I have to try to connect the news and internal memos and rumors like they’re puzzle pieces just to figure out if I can keep my house,” he said.