TSA Boss Warns That Some Airports Might Have to Close

The Transportation Security Administration may have to shut down operations at some airports as travelers are experiencing record waiting times, the agency's acting head said Wednesday, as the latest offer to end a funding impasse met fierce resistance in Congress. The TSA's Ha Nguyen McNeill described the mounting hardships facing unpaid airport workers—piling up bills and eviction notices, even selling their blood to make ends meet—and warned that lawmakers must ensure "this never happens again," the AP reports.

• "This is a dire situation," she testified at a House hearing, warning of potential airport closures. "At this point, we have to look at all options on the table. And that does require us to, at some point, 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."

• McNeill, the acting TSA administrator, told lawmakers that multiple airports are experiencing greater than 40% callout rates and more than 480 transportation security officers have now quit during the shutdown.
• She said wait times at airports are the longest in the agency's 24-year history, NPR reports. At some major airports, wait times have exceeded four hours in recent days. McNeill also said there has been a 500% increase in assaults on TSA staff since the partial government shutdown began. "This is unacceptable and it will not be tolerated," McNeill said
• Top officials at agencies under the DHS umbrella spoke for more than three hours before the House Homeland Security Committee about the potential risks of security lapses unless the partial government shutdown comes to an end. DHS has gone without routine funding since mid-February. Democrats are insisting on changes to the Trump administration's immigration enforcement and mass deportation operations after the killings of two US citizens in Minneapolis by federal officers during protests.

• Yet on the 40th day of the standoff involving the Department of Homeland Security, there was no easy way out in sight. Neither Republican senators, who made the latest offer, nor Democrats, who are demanding more changes in immigration enforcement, appeared closer to a compromise.
• The latest proposal would fund most of DHS except for the enforcement and removal operations of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement that have been central to the debate. The plan would cover other aspects of ICE as well as Customs and Border Protection. Trump, who initially appeared to have given his nod to the deal, has declined to lend it his full support or put his political weight behind making sure it is approved.
• 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 said they needed to see real changes. 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.

• Trump's decision to send ICE agents to airports risks inflaming the situation, lawmakers have said. But McNeill thanked Trump for the move on Wednesday, saying it was "enabling TSA officers to focus on carrying out critical security screening duties during this challenging time for our agency."
• In a Truth Social post Wednesday, Trump said "unfairly maligned" ICE officers were improving their image by assisting at airports, saying "they are helping people with bags, even picking up and cleaning areas." "The Public is loving ICE, so the Democrats, unwittingly, did us a favor," he wrote. "They are Great American Patriots, they just happen to have much larger, and harder, muscles than most — which is what they're supposed to have."