Ha McNeill, the senior official at the Transportation Security Administration, will tell a US House committee on Wednesday that 460 TSA officers have quit since the start of the current funding dispute after 1110 quit during the 2025 shutdown.
TSA is grappling with the spring break travel surge and experiencing about a five per cent higher travel volume than in 2025. Absences have spiked to more than 10 per cent in recent days, which has led to passengers waiting up to four-and-a-half hours at some airports, her written testimony seen by Reuters says.
McNeill will cite reports of TSA agents "sleeping in their cars at airports to save gas money, selling their blood and plasma, and taking on second and third jobs to make ends meet, all while expected to perform at the highest level when in uniform to protect the travelling public".
She will add, "Many have received eviction notices, lost their childcare, missed bill payments and been charged late fees, damaged their credit, defaulted on loans, and have been unable to even qualify for a loan to help ease the financial burden during the shutdown."
Democrats have held up funding for DHS while demanding a change in rules governing its immigration operations, after agents in Minneapolis shot and killed US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Republicans have rejected Democratic proposals to fund TSA while negotiating over ICE reforms.
Hundreds of US immigration agents and Homeland Security Investigations officers began deploying at 14 US airports on Monday to aid security screening, including at some airports where wait times have topped three or four hours.
DHS on Monday said nearly 11 per cent of TSA officers nationally, or more than 3200, did not show up for work.
ICE and other law enforcement personnel at DHS are getting paid during the shutdown.
