Daily Mining Gazette file photo Passengers deplane at Houghton County Memorial Airport from the Chicago afternoon flight in this undated file photo. With TSA workers without pay for weeks, many local residents have been generously donation food and gift cards to help out.

FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP — As the federal standoff for Department of Homeland Security funding is close to an end, the chaos regarding pay for Transportation Security Administration workers is finally being remedied.

According to a presidential memorandum released Friday, President Donald Trump announced he will reallocate funds to establish back pay for TSA workers who have not been paid since February 14. This comes as Congress stumbles to pass funding for DHS, which includes TSA.

This standoff has affected TSA employees at Houghton County Memorial Airport (CMX), who have been working without pay for more than 40 days.

CMX has been accepting donations to the airport operations office from Thursday through Monday in order to supplement any missed pay. These donations included gas, grocery store and restaurant gift cards in $10 and $20 increments. Cash could not legally be accepted.

According to a Facebook post by CMX, “[TSA] at Houghton County Memorial Airport have continued to show up every single day — keeping our community safe and travel moving — despite working without pay for over 40 days.”

Houghton County Memorial Airport Manager Casey Polkinghorne, said that they have been taking donations because of the lack of pay to TSA employees at CMX. Food was also given out to TSA employees by community members.

“Somebody brought in food like pizza, they brought in pizzas last week,” he said. “We’ve had kids come in and donate their own money.”

Michael Hicks, of Pelkie, bought the pizzas for TSA workers on Thursday. Hicks says he has worked alongside TSA agents in the past and it was the least he could do during this uncertain period.

“Nobody likes to miss a paycheck and they are going on almost a month and a half with no pay, and a lot of people are living paycheck to paycheck,” he said. “I just don’t feel its right that they were being used as a political football, and they were getting kicked around and I said, ‘well maybe I could cheer them up a bit,’ so I bought ’em lunch.”

CMX’s Facebook page put out guidelines for donations last Thursday, at press time more than 250 people have shared the post. Polkinghorne has seen the outpouring of support for the TSA employees and says he is grateful.

“It’s just been good community support,” he said. “People seemed to be excited to donate.”

Monday was the last day donations to TSA at Houghton County Memorial Airport could be legally accepted. Donations coming in from today on will be rejected.

According to another CMX Facebook update posted Monday, “[Monday] is the final day for TSA employees at CMX to accept donations for those in need. We are glad to share that the government is beginning to resume paying TSA employees,” the post sates. “We want to extend a heartfelt THANK YOU to our incredible community for your generosity and support.”

In an interview with Jake Tapper of CNN Sunday, Border Czar Tom Homan said TSA agents can expect a paycheck early this week. It is unclear whether agents at smaller county airports such as CMX will receive back pay sooner rather than later as TSA’s media office could not be reached for comment at press time.