Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Tuesday promised Federal Emergency Management Agency employees will receive all of their backpay within the next six days.
FEMA workers have been among DHS employees whose pay has been affected by the 52-day partial government shutdown, now the longest in U.S. history. Mullin referenced the debacle during a trip this week to North Carolina, where FEMA is continuing to oversee disaster relief efforts roughly 1 1/2 years after Hurricane Helene devastated the state, killing 107 people. Mullin’s trek to North Carolina marked the first visit of his tenure as newly christened DHS chief, setting the state apart as a priority for the Trump administration.
“We’re going to be able to get everybody paid through pay period six, which is basically all their back pay,” Mullin told reporters when pressed on when FEMA personnel will be paid.
“A lot of FEMA employees are still owed half of pay period three, four, five, and six,” he said. “We expect most of those checks to be in their banks by Friday. Some of the financial institutions may have to wait on Monday, but the majority of the round be paid by then.”
Mullin said at the Lake Lure roundtable that President Donald Trump told him he wanted North Carolina to be his first stop as DHS chief, with the state still reeling from Helene after the storm ripped through in 2024. Gov. Josh Stein (D-NC) likewise urged Mullin to visit and welcomed him to the state on Tuesday. Washington last week announced over $100 million more in FEMA funding to spur recovery efforts, saying, “Trump has made it clear that North Carolina will not be left to shoulder this recovery alone.”
“The president made it very clear when we were going through the nomination process that this is where he wanted my first stop to be because he said there’s still a tremendous amount of work to go,” Mullin told local officials this week gathered in Chimney Rock. “No one in D.C. is forgetting about it.”
Mullin said he is not in favor of eliminating FEMA, as Trump has floated in the past, but of reforming it to ensure aid flows more efficiently and effectively to residents. In one of his first acts as DHS secretary, Mullin last week axed a controversial policy governing large federal contracts enacted by his predecessor, Kristi Noem, which critics said slowed the flow of FEMA aid.
“I’ve talked to the president a lot about this, reforming FEMA would be a better term of what we’re trying to do,” Mullin said. “The president said he wants to get the dollars to the state quicker and not looking at FEMA as a first responder but as support.”
Mullin’s assurance that FEMA workers will receive their pay on Tuesday comes after Trump released a memorandum ordering the DHS chief on Friday to issue paychecks to tens of thousands of DHS employees who have not been paid for nearly eight weeks due to the shutdown.
“Help is on the way for our Brave and Patriotic Public Servants who have continued to work hard and do their part to protect and defend our Country,” Trump wrote in a post to Truth Social.
WATCH: THE AWKWARD MOMENT NOEM TAKES THE STAGE SHORTLY AFTER BEING FIRED BY TRUMP
DHS, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Transportation Security Administration, FEMA, and other agencies, is the only government agency affected by the shutdown. The partial closure was triggered in the middle of February, when Democrats in Congress, outraged over ICE’s conduct, refused to renew federal funding for DHS.
Congress remains split over the funding stall. The Senate recently passed a bipartisan bill that would reopen most DHS agencies, excluding ICE and Customs and Border Protection. But the legislation has yet to pass the House.
