Department of Homeland Security and Transportation Security Administration officials at Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport announced that selected TSA employees nominated for their work during a 43-day government shutdown will receive $10,000 bonus payments and that the department will invest more than $1 billion in new screening equipment.

The official identified in the transcript as “DHS secretary Kristi Noem” said onstage that "we have $10,000 bonus payments that we will be paying to each of the individuals behind us," and described the awards as recognition for employees who continued shifts and covered extra work during the shutdown. The official said nominations for the awards are made locally and forwarded to TSA headquarters and the executive secretary's office for final approval.

The official also announced a large procurement plan, saying, "We will be putting over $1,000,000,000 into new scanning equipment, new x-ray equipment, AIT equipment," and that the equipment will be deployed "over the next many months" and "start almost immediately." She described the investment as the largest in more than a decade for the agency's checkpoint technology.

Event organizers framed the bonuses and equipment purchases as both employee recognition and part of broader efforts to modernize screening technology. The official said the funds are being allocated from DHS budgets entrusted to protect the transportation system; no separate vote or public procurement schedule was read into the record at the event.

Officials did not provide a detailed procurement timeline or line-item budget at the event. They said deployments would begin soon but left the detailed rollout schedule, vendors and contract values "not specified" in the remarks. The official also said that the nominations for bonuses are reviewed locally and then forwarded to TSA headquarters and the executive secretary's office for final action.

The announcements followed onstage testimony from multiple TSA employees who described personal and family hardships during the shutdown and who were then publicly recognized; those personal accounts were part of the event honoring employees for service and are reported separately.

Officials said the investment and bonuses reflect a departmental commitment to both staff welfare and improved checkpoint capabilities; they added that further details would be provided through agency channels rather than at the event.