The Transportation Security Administration could be forced to shut down operations at some airports if the Homeland Security funding impasse continues, the TSA’s acting head warned lawmakers Wednesday as record wait times failed to break the political standoff.
Ha Nguyen McNeill, acting TSA administrator, told the House Homeland Security Committee that the shutdown’s costs were mounting for unpaid TSA workers—describing piling bills and eviction notices and saying some employees were selling blood and plasma to make ends meet. McNeill said lawmakers must ensure the situation “this never happens again.”
“This is a dire situation,” she said in testimony, warning that the TSA might have to make “very difficult choices as to which airports we might try to keep open and which ones we might have to shut down as our callout rates increase.” She testified that the TSA is already facing operational constraints tied to higher absenteeism and staffing losses.
McNeill said the Homeland Security standoff is approaching its 40th day, with DHS lacking routine funding since mid-February. She warned that the risks for transportation security are growing as the political impasse persists in Congress, where lawmakers are debating not only funding for DHS agencies but also changes to immigration enforcement operations.
During the same Wednesday hearing, DHS officials and agency leaders warned that a partial government shutdown could create broader security gaps. They spoke for more than three hours before the committee about risks tied to continuing funding shortfalls.
The funding fight centers on Democrats’ insistence on changes to President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement operations after the killings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis by federal officers during protests. In response, Republicans made an offer that would fund most of DHS while excluding the enforcement and removal operations of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement—though it would still provide money for other parts of ICE and for Customs and Border Protection.
Democrats and Republicans signaled deep disagreements over whether the proposal provides enough “real changes.” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said they needed to see changes, saying, “We’ve been talking about ICE reforms from day one.” Republican leaders said Democrats were putting the country at risk, and House Speaker Mike Johnson said, “They know this is crazy.”
McNeill said airport lines were also worsening as staffing and callout rates deteriorated. She told lawmakers that multiple airports were experiencing greater than 40% callout rates and that more than 480 transportation security officers had quit. She also said TSA officers have experienced a more than 500% increase in the frequency of assaults since the shutdown began.
At the same hearing, Jim Szczesniak, aviation director for Houston’s airport system, said security lines at George Bush Intercontinental Airport—where TSA can staff only one-third to one-half of the usual number of checkpoint lines—have led to waiting times that could stretch to four hours or more, with lines crossing multiple floors.
Szczesniak and lawmakers also raised concerns about Trump’s decision to send ICE agents to airports, with some officials saying it could inflame the situation. The testimony cited the uproar over video footage from San Francisco International Airport showing federal officers detaining a crying woman, though lawmakers said the incident was not related to Trump’s order to deploy immigration officers.
The fallout from the funding lapse is extending beyond TSA and airport security. Victoria Barton, a FEMA external affairs official, told lawmakers that FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund is “rapidly depleting,” while saying the agency can continue disaster response and recovery as long as there is money available and that about 10,000 disaster workers were continuing to be paid through the fund.
On the political side, the standoff remained unresolved late Wednesday, with Republican leaders saying Democrats would need to put a “more realistic offer on the table” for negotiations to resume. At the same time, Trump had not fully thrown his political weight behind passage, according to the account at the hearing, leaving the parties without a clear path out of the impasse.