As roughly 120,000 Department of Homeland Security employees keep clocking in without pay, most of New York’s congressional delegation is keeping its lips sealed on a simple question: will they give up their own paychecks during the partial DHS shutdown? That silence is not going unnoticed by unions and worker advocates, who say the optics are hard to ignore while airport screeners, FEMA staffers and other frontline workers wait for Washington to sort things out.
What New York lawmakers told reporters
As first reported by the New York Post, several House members from New York sidestepped when asked if they would keep collecting their congressional salaries while DHS workers go unpaid. The Post quoted Rep. Pat Ryan saying his policy is not to take paychecks during shutdowns. The outlet also reported that Rep. Laura Gillen declined to say whether she would accept the $174,000 annual salary that many lawmakers receive.
How many DHS staff are working without pay
Inside DHS, the disruption is split. About 120,000 employees are on the job without pay, while around 140,000 others remain on payroll, according to internal figures reported by Semafor. Those numbers include TSA screeners, Coast Guard civilians and many FEMA and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency workers among the staffers who could see delayed paychecks if the standoff drags on.
Why forgoing pay is often symbolic
Rank and file members of Congress earn $174,000 a year, a figure laid out in public statements from Senate offices and long-standing guidance on congressional compensation. Legal analysts and fact checkers note that lawmakers can ask that their pay be withheld or promise to donate shutdown-period checks, but constitutional and payroll rules mean those gestures are largely political rather than a true financial penalty unless Congress changes the law, as Sen. Dick Durbin's office and a recent analysis point out. Factually found that shutdown-era pledges to forgo pay have been scattered and mostly symbolic in practice.
Local ripple effects and timing
The DHS funding lapse began on Feb. 14, and agency leaders have warned that prolonged unpaid stretches could trigger staffing strains and service slowdowns as employees juggle voluntary furloughs and cut back where they can, Government Executive reported. Airport screening and disaster response work are still operating, but unions and managers caution that morale and absenteeism can deteriorate quickly if paychecks are delayed beyond the next payroll cycle.
For New Yorkers watching the showdown from home, the open question is whether their representatives, who often campaign on worker protections, will spell out what they are doing with their own salaries while DHS staff work without pay. With negotiations over DHS funding and immigration measures still unresolved, both that answer and the real-world impact on the people keeping airports and emergency systems running are still up in the air.
