White House officials and Capitol Hill Democrats know the pain of the shutdown is about to get worse.
But neither side is blinking yet.
In the coming weeks, long lines and canceled flights, which so far have been localized to cities such as Houston, Atlanta and New Orleans, are expected to increase. Experts say the country is on the verge of a surge in TSA callouts and resignations, which will strain the system nationwide. And there is a tight deadline to resolve the impasse: Congress is scheduled to leave for recess next weekend.
“It’s not widespread yet…(but) keep this thing going for the next week or two, and there’s a really good chance it will become widespread,” said an aviation industry official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the industry’s involvement with the Trump administration about the ordeal. “There’s a good chance that this is not going to be resolved before (Congressional recess next weekend), and it would take a major recession to resolve it.”
As the DHS shutdown entered its fifth week, both sides gambled that they could win the political messaging war over who is responsible for the effects of the shutdown. On the Trump administration side, top officials responded to the airstrikes and from official social media accounts blamed Democrats, accused leftists of holding TSA agents’ livelihoods “hostage” and warned that the administration would have to take tougher measures in the coming weeks. TSA agents missed their first full pay check last week after receiving only partial checks since the shutdown began in mid-February.
“We are fully prepared,” Acting Deputy TSA Administrator Adam Stahl said on Fox News this week. “If this continues, it would not be an exaggeration to say that we may literally have to close airports.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy compared the DHS shutdown to previous shutdowns that have crippled the FAA’s air traffic control force. in one cnbcinterview with","Add":{"Target": :"New","Property":(),"url": :"https://x.com/SecDuffy/status/2034634015802523968?s=20","_Identification": :"0000019d-0890-d970-a7bd-bafd86040000","_Type": :"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_Identification": :"0000019d-0890-d970-a7bd-bafd86040001","_Type": :"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>Interview with CNBCDuffy warned: “I believe you’re going to see smaller airports closing, you’re going to see extensive lines, and air travel is going to come to a near halt.” Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian called the entire incident “inexcusable” in an appearance on CNBC on Tuesday, and said the TSA workers were just being used as “political chips” amid the shutdown fight.
“We are angry,” Bastian said, referring to the airline industry.
On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune suggested he might recess the Senate","Add":{"Target": :"New","Property":(),"url": :"https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/03/19/congress/senate-recess-at-risk-if-dhs-shutdown-continues-thune-says-00836246","_Identification": :"0000019d-0890-d970-a7bd-bafd86040002","_Type": :"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_Identification": :"0000019d-0890-d970-a7bd-bafd86040003","_Type": :"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>Cancel Senate recess If the shutdown is not over by then. It came as a bipartisan group of senators, including members of the Appropriations Committee and a group of Democrats who helped negotiate ending previous shutdowns, met privately at the Capitol with Trump’s border czar Tom Homan. Together, they offered a suggestion that lawmakers were taking a renewed focus on ending the shutdown.
White House officials also spoke with travel industry executives this week, as fears grow inside the administration about the worsening situation in the short and long term.
“I am extremely concerned, not just in the short term but throughout the summer,” said one administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to speak candidly. “If this is not resolved as soon as possible the World Cup and the Americas250 could be ruined.”
For the first time in weeks-long negotiations with Democrats over the shutdown, White House officials released details of changes to be made to immigration enforcement — an effort to show it is a good-faith effort as Democrats dismiss their proposals as non-serious. But officials had few answers about how it would handle challenges with the TSA in the coming weeks.
A senior White House official, speaking with reporters this week, accused Democrats of repeatedly blocking a temporary halt to funding for the agency while negotiations over immigration continued.
“A bill that would pay TSA agents would keep the lights on for a very short period of time and allow time for this negotiation,” said the official, who was granted anonymity to discuss the status of negotiations. “We have laid out several different paths for Democrats to stop hurting these middle class … TSA workers who are working without pay for the third time this year.”
And this week Democrats tried to pin the blame on the White House and Republicans by trying to force a vote on legislation to fund DHS agencies in addition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused Republicans of withholding TSA money in remarks on the House floor.
“We know there are discussions about ICE and Border Patrol that we haven’t resolved, but why is TSA held hostage? Why are travelers waiting on long lines at our airports held hostage?” He said.
“Republicans just have to say yes, and those lines will be greatly reduced or eliminated.”
free fall situation
Long waiting times and absence of staff at airports are becoming a problem for hundreds of passengers. The problem does not discriminate between large or small airports as wait times continue to increase across the country.
There are serious problems at some airports, including Houston’s William Hobby Airport. Unscheduled absence rates at the airport have skyrocketed, ranging between 30 and 55 percent. At George Bush Intercontinental Airport, also in Houston, similarly extreme wait times have increased to three hours.
This week, Philadelphia International Airport said it was closing some of its security checkpoints due to staffing shortages. John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in New Orleans are seeing additional absences, between 25 and 40 percent each.
As of Tuesday, 366 screeners have left their jobs since the shutdown began. Thousands of people did not come to work.
Aviation industry officials said travel organizations do not understand why the impact has been localized to some airports and not others. For now, “it’s kind of weird,” but eventually it will become “like a snowball going down the hill,” the official said. “Once it actually starts, it will accelerate significantly” as frustrations grow for the screener force.
All this is happening amid record travel during the spring break holidays, with summer just around the corner. CEOs of the country’s top airlines a letter on sundayI pleaded with MPs","Add":{"Target": :"New","Property":(),"url": :"https://www.airlines.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/260315_Open-Letter.pdf","_Identification": :"0000019d-0890-d970-a7bd-bafd86040004","_Type": :"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_Identification": :"0000019d-0890-d970-a7bd-bafd86040005","_Type": :"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>implored MPs in a letter on Sunday To move forward on a resolution, as it is estimated that 170 million passengers will take to the skies this spring.
“It shouldn’t take a letter from 10 CEOs,” said Christopher Sununu, president and CEO of Airlines for America. said in an interview","Add":{"Target": :"New","Property":(),"url": :"https://www.ms.now/chris-jansing-reports/watch/sununu-speaks-out-on-the-impact-of-tsa-workers-not-getting-read-massive-strain-on-the-system-2492452419742","_Identification": :"0000019d-0890-d970-a7bd-bafd86040006","_Type": :"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_Identification": :"0000019d-0890-d970-a7bd-bafd86040007","_Type": :"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>said in an interview Tuesday on MS Now. “All it takes is walking in a TSA line, looking a (TSA screener) into the eyes of a member of Congress or the Senate, and explaining why they don’t get a pay check.”
“I don’t know why the federal government thinks they can just write their own rules and play by a different set,” he said.
The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents TSA workers, supported that claim.
“As financial pressures increase, more workers will be forced into impossible choices,” AFGE national president Everett Kelly said in a statement. “The lines will get longer. The delays will get worse. Officers who have not left for more reliable employment will bear the burden of a system that treats them as expendable.”
“The time for excuses is over,” Kelly said later Thursday. “Pass a measure to reopen DHS, pay these workers, and don’t go home until you get paid.”
