The Latest: TSA official stresses record-high airport wait times as shutdown drags on
At a House Homeland Security committee hearing that stretched over three hours on Wednesday, lawmakers and Transportation Security Administration officials stressed the urgency of the ongoing government shutdown as TSA workers scrape by without pay and long security lines wind through some airports.
The shutdown may force TSA to consider closing some airports until funding resumes, said Ha Nguyen McNeill, the agency’s acting administrator. She said multiple airports are experiencing callout rates higher than 40%, and air travelers are experiencing the TSA’s highest wait times ever.
But on the 40th day of the DHS budget standoff, there’s still no easy way out in sight.
Here's the latest:
Here’s what some airlines are offering passengers who miss flights
— United Airlines is waiving change fees and fare differences for passengers flying out of Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport between Monday and Wednesday. Travelers can reschedule onto a new flight departing through Friday and also have the option to fly out of Austin, Dallas or San Antonio instead.
— Delta Air Lines is waiving change or rebooking fees for travelers affected by long TSA lines at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson from March 23–30. Passengers there can reschedule onto a flight departing through April 6.
— Allegiant Air said customers can change or cancel itineraries without penalty until the end of the partial government shutdown.
Travelers can also search their airline’s name plus “travel alerts” online for the latest updates.
Checkpoint closures add more work for passengers at some airports
TSA checkpoint closures and the consolidation of security lanes at several U.S. airports are making travel more complicated for passengers.
On Wednesday, Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport directed United Airlines travelers with checked bags to first drop their luggage at Terminal C and then walk or take the train to Terminal E to go through security.
Philadelphia International Airport is seeing similar disruptions. Multiple checkpoints have been temporarily closed due to TSA staffing shortages, and travelers are being funneled into the airport’s remaining open lanes.
Even after clearing security, some passengers must then travel to another terminal to reach their gate.
White House says TSA waits have decreased since ICE agents arrived, but gives no details
Leavitt said Wednesday that the decision to send ICE agents to U.S. airports in hopes of alleviating hourslong security lines “is yielding results.”
Pointing out that Trump had been criticized for the idea, Leavitt said that “we have seen wait times decrease, not as much as we’d like.”
Federal immigration officers have been spotted at several airports across the country, but it’s unclear how or if they have been actively assisting with duties of TSA officers, many of whom have called out sick or quit as the Homeland Security shutdown — and their own missed pay — drags on.
When asked Tuesday about officials’ claims that ICE’s presence at airports was helping reduce long wait times, TSA union leaders told reporters that air travel is historically slower on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
A deal teeters on collapse
The latest proposal would fund most of DHS except for the enforcement and removal operations of U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement that have been central to the debate. The plan would cover other aspects of ICE as well as Customs and Border Protection.
While the offer added some new restraints on immigration officers, including the use of body cameras, it excluded other policies that Democrats have demanded.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said they needed to see real changes. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York pressed for “bold” changes at ICE.
Republican leaders said Democrats are putting the country at risk.
“They know this is crazy,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
But conservative Republicans also panned the proposal, demanding full funding for immigration operations and skeptical of the promise from GOP leaders that they would address Trump’s proof-of-citizenship voting bill in a subsequent legislative package.
Leavitt: Democrats ‘want this chaos’ in Homeland Security shutdown
Asked if the lengthy delays and long security checkpoint lines at airports across the country would be what brought the Homeland Security shutdown to an end, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed Democrats for the lack of a deal to fund the agency.
Saying administration officials have “attempted in good faith” to negotiate to end the stalemate, Leavitt said Democrats “want this chaos” in order to “distract, I think, from the success of our military overseas right now, totally obliterating the Iranian regime.”
Air travelers are experiencing the longest wait times ever under the TSA, the agency’s acting head told Congress earlier Wednesday, as the latest offer to end a funding impasse and put restraints on Trump’s mass deportation agenda met fierce resistance.
Neither Republican senators, who made the latest offer, nor Democrats, who are demanding more changes in immigration enforcement, appeared closer to a compromise.
Sign of the lines
The security line at New York’s LaGuardia Airport extended virtually the whole length of Terminal B at midday Wednesday.
The line curved around corners and, at points, snaked back and forth in a zigzag of people, suitcases and strollers. A few ICE agents were seen nearby.
At the spot where the queue finally stopped, an airport employee held up a yellow sign reading, “This is the end of the line, please join here.”
Lawmaker questions rapid training for ICE agents assisting at TSA checkpoints
New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver, a Democrat, pressed TSA leadership about how ICE agents could be prepared in roughly 72 hours to assist at airport checkpoints when TSA training typically takes about six months.
In response, McNeill said ICE personnel deployed to some airports are conducting “nonspecialized screening functions,” including helping manage long lines, checking travel documents and instructing passengers on how to load their bins.
“All of these require certain levels of training, and we’ve done that over the first few days of this week,” McNeill said.
No known plans to cut FEMA staff, official says
“I’m not familiar with any current guidance, as far as cutting the workforce by any sort of percentage,” Barton told Rep. Timothy Kennedy, a Democrat from New York.
Kennedy asked Barton whether FEMA was still planning to cut its workforce by half. In December, some FEMA managers received an email asking them to engage in a “planning exercise” to identify how they would execute a 50% staff reduction.
Kennedy also expressed regret that FEMA official Gregg Phillips had not represented the agency at the hearing as originally scheduled. News reports last week resurfaced past remarks Phillips made about election conspiracies, claims he once “teleported” to a restaurant, and violence against former President Joe Biden.
“All of which, to me, makes him wholly disqualified to hold his position,” Kennedy said.
What delays? Some travelers say their only messes were minor
Travel frustrations are real with security delays at some U.S. airports. But some people have made it to the gate with ease.
Rod Redcay said he arrived at the Philadelphia airport two hours early Tuesday and then “walked right up!” to the security checkpoint.
“The only snag was forgetting to grab my laptop at security! ... Thankfully I had plenty of time to look for it,” he said on Facebook. “100° temps, here we come!!!”
Meanwhile, Kayla Tatum said she made it through security in four minutes at Baltimore-Washington International Airport in Maryland.
Only later did things get a bit messy: On the plane, her son “spilled his Coke ALL over us,” she said on Facebook.
Thousands of FEMA employees are paid, despite official’s remarks
Rep. Michael Guest, a Republican from Mississippi, asked each agency official if their employees were being paid. Each said “No,” but when Guest reached FEMA external affairs official Victoria Barton, she paused before saying, “No.”
That’s incorrect: About 10,000 members of FEMA’s disaster workforce are paid through the agency’s disaster relief fund, which continues to operate until it runs out of money. That’s nearly half the total FEMA workforce.
Committee Chair Rep. Andrew Garbarino, a Republican from New York, quickly followed up, asking Barton to confirm which employees are paid “to make sure you have the right thing on the record.”
Barton clarified that the unpaid employees are the ones not being paid out of the disaster relief fund.
Houston airport lines see some relief from fewer passengers
Security check-in lines at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston had shortened noticeably Wednesday morning.
The airport’s website estimated wait times at 90 minutes to two hours to reach its two open checkpoints. An Associated Press reporter traveling through Houston got through the line in just 30 minutes after joining the queue at 9:15 a.m. CDT.
Houston’s chief airport executive noted Tuesday that some passengers had been waiting four hours or longer in lines that meandered across multiple floors.
The shorter wait times are likely temporary.
“Today’s swing in wait times reflects the traditionally lower passenger volumes expected on Wednesdays,” said an update on the airport’s website.
FEMA disaster funding running low, official says
The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund is “rapidly depleting,” Barton, a FEMA external affairs official, warned lawmakers.
FEMA will be able to continue its disaster response and recovery work as long as the relief fund has money, and about 10,000 of its disaster workers continue to be paid through that fund.
However, the fund has about $3.6 billion left, Barton said. The DHS appropriations bill would have replenished the fund with about $26 billion.
Barton also cautioned that FEMA’s preparedness and security grant work is paused months before the FIFA World Cup and the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations.
“This is especially concerning as the nation faces heightened national security concerns,” she said.
TSA official warns shutdown could weaken security
“We are really concerned about our security posture and what the long-term impacts of the shutdown is going to have on the workforce and our ability to carry out the mission,” McNeill said.
Shutdown could impact future World Cup travel, lawmakers and TSA chief warn
The 2026 World Cup was in the spotlight during Wednesday’s House committee hearing. The U.S., Canada and Mexico will be co-hosting the tournament, which kicks off in June.
Rep. Andrew R. Garbarino, a Republican from New York and chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, pointed to the surge in international fans expected to travel through the nation’s airports and said disruptions spanning from the ongoing shutdown “present a dire situation” ahead of the tournament.
McNeill, meanwhile, noted that the shutdown also has significantly decreased the number of interested new hire candidates. For those who are hired, four to six months of training is required, she said — meaning they would not be able to work at checkpoints “until well after the 2026 FIFA World Cup.”
FEMA official who said he ‘teleported’ absent from hearing
Gregg Phillips is not representing the Federal Emergency Management Agency at today’s hearing despite being scheduled to do so.
News reports last week resurfaced past remarks that Phillips, FEMA’s associate administrator of the office of response and recovery, had made promoting election conspiracy theories and claiming that he once teleported to a Waffle House restaurant.
Victoria Barton, an external affairs official, is representing FEMA instead. The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Phillips’ absence.
Over 480 TSA officers have now quit as the shutdown persists, official says
During the House Committee on Homeland Security hearing, McNeill said that more than 480 transportation security officers have now quit amid the ongoing shutdown.
McNeill reiterated the growing financial strain facing that workforce, including missed bill payments, eviction notices and lost child care.
“Some are sleeping in their cars, selling their blood and plasma, and taking on second jobs to make ends meet, all while being expected to perform at the highest level when in uniform to protect the traveling public,” she said.
Nguyen McNeill added that callout rates have reached 40% to 50% at multiple major airports recently, compared with an average of 4% before the shutdown, because staff “simply cannot afford to report to work.”
TSA chief says assaults against officers on the rise
In addition to missed pay, TSA officers working at the nation’s airports have experienced a more than 500% increase in the frequency of assaults since the Homeland Security shutdown began in mid-February.
Ha Nguyen McNeill, the acting TSA administrator, made the disclosure during Wednesday’s congressional hearing.
“This is unacceptable, and it will not be tolerated,” said McNeill, who called for patience and understanding from the public as they experience longer screening times at many airports.
“We are pursuing all legal avenues to prosecute these incidents,” she told lawmakers.
Houston airport chief worries lines may ‘only get worse’
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.
TSA officers share how they’re scraping by without pay
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.
‘TSA employees are dedicated public servants’
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.
TSA official to stress toll of shutdown on airport workers
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.
