As travel disruptions deepen and senators race to clinch a proposal to end the Homeland Security shutdown, House lawmakers are holding a hearing at 10 a.m. ET to discuss the impacts of the funding lapse.
Senators are chasing a deal that would fund much of the department, including Transportation Security Administration workers going without pay, but exclude immigration operations that have been core to the dispute.
Acting TSA administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill said multiple airports are experiencing greater than 40% callout rates, according to prepared remarks she’ll give at the hearing. She is also expected to tell lawmakers of the personal toll the shutdown has had on TSA workers who “are running out of options to keep a roof over their head and put food on the table.”
As U.S. airports remain jammed with long lines due to short staffing at TSA, President Donald Trump ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to provide airport security, alarming some lawmakers. At least 458 TSA officers have quit altogether, according to DHS.
Here’s the latest:
The top executive overseeing Houston airports says security lines that have travelers waiting four hours or more could get even longer if the political impasse that’s keeping TSA agents without pay isn’t resolved soon.
The lines that twist and turn across multiple floors at George Bush Intercontinental Airport stem from TSA being able to staff only one-third to one-half the usual number of checkpoint lines during the busy spring travel season, said Jim Szczesniak, aviation director for Houston’s airport system.
“I want you to know we see it,” Szczesniak said in an online video Tuesday. “We see the families arriving early and waiting for hours. We see missed flights. We see missed moments: weddings, vacation, time with loved ones.”
Szczesniak said hundreds of airport employees “from finance to IT to maintenance” have been temporarily reassigned to help manage lines.
But he warned: “This is not sustainable.”
“We worry conditions will only get worse at airports across the U.S. until Congress ends this shutdown,” Szczesniak said.
A woman in Indiana who put off dental surgery because she doesn’t know if she can afford the copay. A Florida couple with young children who are depleting their savings. A grandmother in Idaho who plans to sell her car to pay the rent.
They are among the tens of thousands of Transportation Security Administration officers set to receive another $0 paycheck this week. A dispute in Congress over funding the Department of Homeland Security has held up their salaries since mid-February. With monthly bills coming due, many of these federal employees, who screen passengers and luggage at airports across the U.S., are making difficult choices about how to make ends meet.
“Stop asking me about the long lines. Ask me if somebody’s gonna eat today,” Hydrick Thomas, president of the national American Federation of Government Employees union council that represents TSA employees, told reporters Tuesday.
McNeill is also expected to tell lawmakers of the personal toll the shutdown has had on TSA workers. She described in her prepared remarks how some are having trouble making ends meet, with some having received eviction notices. She says some workers also have been charged late fees and even defaulted on loans.
“TSA employees are dedicated public servants that want to continue to keep the traveling public safe and secure, but they are running out of options to keep a roof over their head and put food on the table,” McNeill said.
Ha Nguyen McNeill, the acting administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, says daily callout rates from officers scheduled to report for duty have increased from 4% before the Homeland Security shutdown to 11% nationwide, with multiple airports experiencing greater than 40% callout rates.
Meanwhile, the agency is grappling with a spring break travel surge.
McNeill made the comments in prepared remarks she will give to the House Committee on Homeland Security. She is testifying Wednesday along with other heads of agencies within the Homeland Security Department about the shutdown’s impact.
Wait times, she said, have increased to more than four hours at some airports, increasing major security risks and missed flights for passengers.