‘Perfect storm’ of staffing shortage and upcoming World Cup, warns acting head of TSA | House of Representatives
The acting head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said Wednesday that airports across the country are experiencing the “highest wait times in TSA history” as the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) partial shutdown enters its sixth week.
At a House homeland security committee hearing, Ha Nguyen McNeill said his agency has been shut down for 50% of the fiscal year so far; This includes last year’s record-breaking 43-day cut in federal funding. He told lawmakers that by Friday, TSA workers will have missed out on $1 billion in paychecks due to the closures.
“Many of our workforce have missed bill payments, received eviction notices, had their cars repossessed and utilities shut down, lost child care, defaulted on their loans, had their lines of credit damaged and their retirement savings depleted,” he said. “Some sleep in their cars, sell their blood and plasma, and work second jobs to make ends meet.”
Before the shutdown, McNeill noted that TSA’s absentee rate was hovering around 4%. Now, “40 to 50% of their staff are calling out” because they can’t afford to work without getting paid.
He also warned that new recruits would not be ready to work at checkpoints until after the 2026 FIFA World Cup, as training for transport security officers (TSOs) takes four to six months. “This is a very serious situation,” McNeill said. “We are facing a potential perfect storm of severe staff shortages and millions of passengers flocking to our airports for World Cup matches in less than 80 days.”
Republicans on the homeland security committee continued to blame Democrats for the stalemate, while Democrats pressed McNeill to transfer Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to several US airports to assist the TSA. “These agents cannot do TSA’s job, they should not do it, and they are not trained to do it,” said Bennie Thompson, the committee’s ranking member. “So while TSA personnel continue to do their jobs without pay, we see ICE agents standing around or wandering around terminals doing nothing to reduce lines at security checkpoints because Republicans refuse to vote for legislation that would fund TSA. It’s ridiculous and maddening, but not surprising.”
Although McNeill highlighted the months-long training process for TSOs, he argued that ICE officers transferred to airports perform “non-specialized screening functions” and are “incredibly useful in easing the burden on our workforce.”
Negotiations have stalled on Capitol Hill after Democrats rejected Republicans’ latest offer to fund most of DHS, including the TSA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Cisa), the Coast Guard, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema); but excludes ICE and puts its funding in a separate budget bill they hope to pass through reconciliation.
The GOP plan also does not include immigration enforcement reforms that Democrats demanded after Renee Good and Alex Pretti were shot to death during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis earlier this year. “ICE is required to operate with warrants, badge numbers, and standards of conduct just like any other law enforcement agency,” Democratic congressman Seth Magaziner said at Wednesday’s hearing.
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats presented a “reasonable, good-faith” counteroffer Wednesday. But Republicans quickly rejected this. “They’re asking for things that have been denied before. So it seems like they’re in a loop,” said Senate majority leader John Thune.
ICE has been largely insulated from the funding cuts affecting other DHS agencies since it received $75 billion through Trump’s sweeping policy bill last year.
Coast Guard Deputy Commandant Thomas Allan; Nicholas Andersen, acting director of Cisa; and Victoria Barton, Fema’s deputy executive, also testified before a Parliamentary committee alongside McNeill. Barton said some Fema staff were able to continue working thanks to the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF), but only $3.6 billion remained in the fund. He warned that the DRF could run out “pretty quickly” if another major storm comes along.
