The acting head of the Transportation Security Administration says it may have to shut down operations at some airports.
WASHINGTON — The Transportation Security Administration may have to shut down operations at some airports if the budget impasse drags on, the agency’s acting head said Wednesday, even as record wait time for travelers did little tofacing unpaid airport workers — piling up bills and eviction notices, even plasma donations to make ends meet — and warned that lawmakers must ensure “this never happens again.
” “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.”, there was no easy way out in sight. Neither Republican senators, who made the latest offer, nor Democrats, who countered by reiterating their demands for changes to 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. 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.The latest GOP proposal would fund most of DHS except for the enforcement and removal operations of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that have been central to the debate. The plan would provide money for 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, such as requirements that federal agents wear identification and refrain from conducting raids around schools, churches or other sensitive places. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said they needed to see real changes. “We’ve been talking about ICE reforms from day one,” he said.“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 Senate Majority Leader John Thune said late Wednesday that if Democrats put a “more realistic offer on the table, we’ll be back in business.”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.“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. McNeil also said TSA officers working at the nation’s airports have experienced a more than 500% increase in the frequency of assaults since the shutdown began.The top executive overseeing Houston’s airport said security lines that have travelers waiting four hours or more could get longer if the political impasse was not soon settled. Lines that twist and turn across multiple floors at George Bush Intercontinental Airport have been the result of TSA only being able to staff one-third to one-half the usual number of checkpoint lines, said Jim Szczesniak, aviation director for Houston’s airport system.at San Francisco International Airport drew outrage Monday from local officials, although it was unrelated to Trump’s order to deploy immigration officers.The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund is “rapidly depleting,” Victoria Barton, a FEMA external affairs official, told lawmakers. FEMA is able to continue its disaster response and recovery work as long as that fund has money, and about 10,000 of its disaster workers continue being paid through it.Associated Press writers Wyatte Grantham-Philips in New York, Rio Yamat in Las Vegas, Russ Bynum in Houston and Gabriela Aoun Angueira in San Diego contributed to this report.Chuck Norris, martial arts master and actor, dies at 86Alaska volunteer dedicates 600 hours a year to food bank after husband’s death
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