Even though TSA workers have been receiving pay for about a month, 13 Investigates learned they've still been dealing with the fallout from their absences.
Thursday, April 30, 2026 11:28PMThe U.S. House passed a Senate-backed Department of Homeland Security funding bill that will be sent to President Donald Trump's desk to end the longest government shutdown on record.
Americans felt the effects of the partial shutdown at airports across the country, with Houston ranking among the worst. TSA employees went without pay for four weeks. At the end of March, President Trump approved emergency funding for the agents. 13 Investigates learned that even after receiving pay, they are still dealing with the fallout from their absences.
TSA agents who did not show up for work were required to prove they were struggling financially, according to a local TSA agent who agreed to speak anonymously.
"You work your job to know that you're getting a paycheck, and that hasn't been happening," the agent said. The worker said she was forced to take a financial hardship furlough because she couldn't afford the commute to her own job.
"I feel like I'm in a hostage situation," the TSA agent said. "It's like you're in the middle of something that you didn't ask for, and then now it's put me in a financial debt that I've never had. " When the agents were told to return to work on March 28, the local agent said managers began asking employees on a financial hardship furlough to provide documentation to prove it.
"OK, if I have a doctor's note or if I have to get car maintenance, they're like, 'Oh, bring in the receipt. ' Or if you have financial hardship, 'Oh, send us a picture of your bank account,'" the TSA agent said. "It was getting to a point where it was really invasive, like, you know, that we're not being paid and you're asking me for all these things.
" Johnny Jones, the secretary-treasurer of the AFGE TSA Council 100, the TSA workers' union, confirmed that the same demands are being made of agents at airports across the country. "What documentation do you need? We did not get paid, so I mean, you already know this," Jones said. He said that if a manager didn't think the financial information provided was enough to prove hardship, the agent was marked AWOL .
"It's what I call penalism," Jones said. "The manager might be the judge, the jury, and the executioner at the same time. They're like, 'Well, it's just not good enough. Bring me something else.
'" The local TSA agent we spoke with said her documentation was accepted, meaning she was paid for the time that she couldn't work. Jones said the concept of proving hardship is something the union is talking about with members of Congress. He hopes to get a law passed to avoid this from happening in the future.
"What's going to end up happening is that a lot of people who are eligible to retire are going to take the exit door," Jones said. 13 Investigates asked TSA on Thursday where the directive requiring documentation came from and whether there were guidelines on what was acceptable proof of hardship. We also asked whether the agency has observed changes in staffing levels at Houston airports during this shutdown. We will update this story with their response.
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