AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Travelers at U.S. airports are currently enduring the highest wait times ever recorded. That's according to the acting administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, testifying today before Congress. Ha Nguyen McNeill also told lawmakers of mounting hardships for unpaid airport workers. Both are the result of the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, which has been going on now for more than a month. NPR's Meg Anderson reports.
MEG ANDERSON, BYLINE: Ha Nguyen McNeill, the acting TSA administrator, painted a dire picture of what TSA officers are going through right now as they continue to work without pay.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
HA NGUYEN MCNEILL: Many in our workforce have missed bill payments, received eviction notices, had their cars repossessed and utilities shut off. Some are sleeping in their cars, selling their blood and plasma and taking on job - second jobs to make ends meet.
ANDERSON: McNeill told the House Committee on Homeland Security this can't go on much longer. She said TSA officers are now owed more than $1 billion in missed paychecks. The funding standoff, at its heart, is about Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Democrats are demanding reforms to the Trump administration's aggressive immigration enforcement operations after the killings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis earlier this year. But Democrats and Republicans at the hearing today seemed no closer to any sort of agreement. Republicans focused on threats to national and transportation security without the funding. Republican Congresswoman Sheri Biggs brought up the deadly tarmac collision this week at LaGuardia Airport when an airline hit a fire truck, killing the two pilots.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SHERI BIGGS: We already know our aviation system is under unprecedented stress because of this stalemate. When you stop paying the people who keep our country safe, you are playing with fire.
ANDERSON: Officials from other DHS agencies, including the Coast Guard and FEMA, also testified about hardships they're experiencing from the shutdown. Republicans warned of the strain of upcoming events like the FIFA World Cup. Democrats in the Senate have rejected Republican proposals to fund DHS operations outside of ICE detention and deportation over concerns that the GOP offers have not gone far enough to reform the agency. At the House hearing, Democrats at the hearing said they don't want to continue to spend billions of dollars on ICE without accountability. Meg Anderson, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF EDDIE HENDERSON'S "INSIDE YOU") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
