As Congress draws nearer to Friday’s funding deadline that could , legislators from both parties are warning that travelers are likely to feel the consequences most intensely.
During a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing Wednesday, the acting leader of the Transportation Security Administration issued a frank reminder of the implications of a prolonged DHS shutdown for air travel: the majority of TSA officers would stay on duty without pay, securing over 430 commercial airports across the country.
“A lack of funding and predictability of resourcing will pose significant challenges to our ability to deliver transportation security with the level of excellence we expect and Americans deserve,” said Ha Nguyen McNeill, the acting TSA administrator. “The TSA critical national security mission does not stop during a shutdown.”
This warning was issued amid bipartisan talks about funding DHS—including whether to place new restrictions on the Trump Administration’s tough immigration enforcement strategies—. DHS will close at midnight Friday unless both houses of Congress approve the funding bill by then, even though the rest of the government is already funded until the end of the fiscal year.
Democrats have declined to support a short-term DHS funding extension unless there are new safeguards for Immigration and Customs Enforcement—such as restrictions on mask usage and stricter warrant rules—following the death of two U.S. citizens at the hands of federal immigration officers in Minneapolis last month. Republicans, who claim immigration agencies already have sufficient funding, have urged Democrats to support a continuing resolution to allow more time for negotiations.
A shutdown wouldn’t immediately stop air travel entirely. TSA screeners wouldn’t lose full pay until mid-March, and previous shutdowns indicate that major disruptions usually occur only after several weeks without pay—when officers start taking unscheduled sick days or quitting for other jobs. However, McNeill, the acting TSA administrator, noted that the 43-day long shutdown last time highlighted how fast workforce stress can lead to issues at airports.
During that shutdown, she stated, TSA staff maintained operations and kept average wait times within agency guidelines, but unplanned absences rose and some airports experienced sudden delays as the weeks went on. Some employees, she informed legislators, shared that they slept in their cars to cut gas costs, sold blood and plasma, and took on second jobs to cover their expenses.
“Twelve weeks later, some are just recovering from the financial impact of the 43-day shutdown,” McNeill said. “Many are still reeling from it. We cannot put them through another such experience. It would be unconscionable.”
Airports aren’t the only area of concern. A shutdown would also impact the Coast Guard, cybersecurity efforts, and disaster response—though some of these effects would be lessened at first by remaining funds and special accounts established under last year’s Republican tax and spending bill. Immigration agencies, which are at the heart of the political dispute, would , supported by the $75 billion already allocated to ICE and Customs and Border Protection.
This fact has made it harder for Republicans to argue that Democrats are essentially cutting funding for immigration enforcement, according to Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania—a Democrat who frequently disagrees with his party.
“The Big, Beautiful Bill gave ICE $75 billion,” Fetterman told TIME on Tuesday. “So whatever this vote is, it has nothing to do with defunding ICE—because that’s not true.” Still, he added, the human cost of a shutdown mattered. “It sucks when people don’t get paid,” he said. “I fly 49 days of the year. I think the TSA folks deserve to get paid.”
As negotiations remain stuck, legislators have more and more focused on emphasizing the indirect harm of a shutdown to pressure both sides into a deal.
Rep. Mark Amodei of Nevada, the Republican chair of the Homeland Security subcommittee, stated Wednesday that the “pain here will be felt by the men and women of TSA,” who would again be required to work “without a paycheck.” His Democratic colleague, Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas—who voted with House Republicans last month to fund DHS—warned that while the term “shutdown” may seem like abstract Washington politics, the actual results would include delayed disaster response, weaker cyber protections, and uncertainty for workers “who show up every day to keep this country safe.”
Around 95% of TSA’s workforce—approximately 61,000 employees—would be classified as essential and must work without pay during a shutdown. Although federal law ensures back pay once funding is reinstated, the immediate financial stress can be harsh, especially for lower-wage frontline staff.
McNeill noted that the stakes for air travel are significant—citing both the upcoming spring break travel period and the approaching FIFA World Cup, which starts in June and is projected to bring millions of international tourists to U.S. cities. She cautioned that budget uncertainty could also slow the rollout of new security tech and harm preparations for the event. “We do not have the luxury of time,” she said.
House Democrats used Wednesday’s hearing to voice wider complaints about the Trump Administration’s immigration policies. Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, accused Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem of evading accountability by skipping the hearing—an event she claimed was intended to spread “the fiction that Democrats are opposed to funding” agencies such as TSA, FEMA, and the Coast Guard “when nothing could be further from the truth.”
Yet even as partisan conflicts grew more intense, legislators from both parties recognized that public patience for a DHS shutdown could fade fast once the impacts hit travelers and local communities. As members of Congress get ready to leave Washington later this week for an international security conference in Munich, the opportunity to reach a deal is shrinking quickly.
