The Latest: DHS officials to give update to Congress as travel delays worsen

As travel disruptions worsen and senators rush to conclude a proposal to end the Homeland Security shutdown, House lawmakers are holding a hearing at 10 a.m. ET to discuss the impacts of the funding cutoff.

Senators are seeking a deal that would fund much of the department, including Transportation Security Administration employees without pay, but exclude immigration operations that are at the heart of the conflict.

Acting TSA Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill said several airports are experiencing call rates above 40 percent, according to prepared remarks she will deliver at the hearing. She is also expected to speak to lawmakers about the personal toll the shutdown has had on TSA workers who are “running out of options to keep a roof over their heads and put food on the table.”

As U.S. airports remain clogged with long lines due to TSA staffing shortages, President Donald Trump has ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to provide airport security, alarming some lawmakers. At least 458 TSA agents have resigned altogether, according to DHS.

Here is the last one:

Houston’s top airports official says security lines that force travelers to wait four hours or more could grow even longer if the political impasse keeping TSA agents without pay is not resolved soon.

Lines that twist and turn several stories high at George Bush Intercontinental Airport stem from TSA being able to handle only a third to half the usual number of screening lines during the peak spring travel season, said Jim Szczesniak, director of aviation for the Houston airport system.

“I want you to know that we see it,” Szczesniak said in an online video Tuesday. “We see families arriving early and waiting for hours. We see missed flights. We see missed moments: weddings, vacations, time spent with loved ones.”

Szczesniak said hundreds of airport employees “from finance to IT to maintenance” have been temporarily reassigned to help manage the lines.

But he warned: “It’s not sustainable. »

“We are concerned that conditions will only get worse at U.S. airports until Congress ends this shutdown,” Szczesniak said.

An Indiana woman who put off dental surgery because she doesn’t know if she can afford the co-pay. A Florida couple with young children who are depleting their savings. An Idaho grandmother considering selling her car to pay the rent.

They are among tens of thousands of Transportation Security Administration agents expected to receive another $0 paycheck this week. A dispute in Congress over funding for the Department of Homeland Security has held up their salaries since mid-February. With monthly bills coming due, many of these federal employees, who screen passengers and baggage at U.S. airports, are facing difficult choices about how to make ends meet.

“Stop asking me about the long lines. Ask me if anyone is going to eat today,” Hydrick Thomas, president of the national union council of the American Federation of Government Employees that represents TSA employees, told reporters Tuesday.

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McNeill is also expected to tell lawmakers about the personal toll the shutdown has had on TSA workers. She described in her prepared remarks how some are struggling to make ends meet, with some having received eviction notices. She says some workers have also been charged late fees and even defaulted on their loans.

“TSA employees are dedicated public servants who want to continue to keep the traveling public safe, but they are running out of options to keep a roof over their heads and put food on the table,” McNeill said.

Ha Nguyen McNeill, acting administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, says daily response rates for officers required to report to work have increased from 4 percent before the Homeland Security shutdown to 11 percent nationwide, with several airports experiencing response rates above 40 percent.

Meanwhile, the agency is grappling with a surge in spring break travel.

McNeill made the comments in prepared remarks she will deliver to the House Committee on Homeland Security. She testified Wednesday with other Department of Homeland Security agency heads about the impact of the shutdown.

Waiting times, she said, have increased to more than four hours at some airports, increasing major security risks and missed flights for passengers.