Weeks into a partial government shutdown with no end in sight, senior Transportation Security Administration officials are warning that the damage to the nations aviation security system will linger long after Congress finally restores funding.
According to Fox News, TSA Deputy Administrator Adam Stahl said the agency is already grappling with the worst security wait times in its history as frontline officers work without pay and key staff walk away from their posts.
"I can tell you right now that the reverberations that will be felt from this will be longstanding," Stahl told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.
"They will continue for days after we get a re-appropriation and funding, particularly for the department for TSA."
The Department of Homeland Security, which houses TSA, has now gone more than 40 days without funding, leaving screeners and agents without a full months pay and forcing them to shoulder the burden of Washingtons political stalemate.
Call-outs have surged to what officials describe as dramatic levels, and DHS says more than 480 employees have already quit the TSA workforce altogether.
Stahl emphasized that even if Congress were to approve a spending bill immediately, the agency would not be able to flip a switch and restore normal operations overnight.
"Even after Congress funds the agency," he warned, it is "going to take time to pay" agents who have been working without pay.
"There are systems in place, financial systems that are outside of a department that we rely on to again, dispense and disperse funds, salaries to our folks, but it will take some time," Stahl explained.
"But we're working as quickly as possible with our partners to make sure once we get that money, we'll hit the ground running and get that into our people's pockets as quickly as possible."
The deputy administrator also raised alarms about the long-term impact on staffing, particularly with the United States preparing to host the World Cup, which will place extraordinary pressure on airports already strained by the shutdown.
"Last time we saw an increase in 25% of attrition immediately following the first shutdown previously in this fiscal year," Stahl told Fox News Digital.
"We're concerned, and we have the World Cup coming up as well with an expected six to ten million travelers on top of a busy summer travel season, so we could really be in a difficult position for the long term," he continued.
"It's going to take time to readjust to get our folks paid," Stahl added.
On Capitol Hill, efforts to restore funding to DHS have repeatedly collapsed as Senate Democrats continue to tie core security funding to their preferred policy changes on immigration enforcement.
On Wednesday evening, a procedural vote to fund DHS failed yet again, adding to five previous failed attempts to move the spending bill forward.
Under Senate rules, the measure needs 60 votes to overcome a filibuster, a threshold that has remained out of reach despite several Democrats breaking ranks to support basic funding for the department.
Even with those defections, the votes have consistently fallen short, leaving TSA, FEMA and other DHS components operating on fumes while employees work without paychecks.
Democrats have insisted that any DHS funding bill must include revisions to Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, including a requirement for judicial warrants and the removal of face coverings for agents.
Senate Republicans have countered that if Democrats want to impose new constraints on ICE, they must at least agree to fund the agency charged with enforcing federal immigration law.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., accused Democrats of prolonging the crisis by recycling demands that have already been rejected.
"They know better," Thune told reporters after Wednesday evenings vote.
"They're asking for things that have already been turned down. So it just seems like they're going in circles."
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., took to the Senate floor to defend his partys stance and to claim that Republicans had privately acknowledged the merits of some Democratic proposals.
"Over the weekend, Democrats had constructive conversations in person with our Republican colleagues," Schumer said.
"They, the Republican colleagues, conceded that some of the reforms, verbally, that we have been looking for, they said these make sense."
Despite those remarks, Democrats have not relented on their demands, and the impasse has left critical homeland security functions underfunded and undermanned.
With resources stretched thin, TSA has begun cutting back on services that do not directly affect the traveling public, including perks long enjoyed by lawmakers themselves.
Stahl said the agency has suspended escort services for members of Congress, a move that underscores the seriousness of the situation.
"We proactively took the step of suspending all members of Congress escort services as just purely when this started to happen, because we fundamentally feel like we should not be expending resources to provide a security screening, expedite security screening to our members of Congress at this time," Stahl told Fox News Digital.
"Our focus is on serving the masses of American people and that's what we're going to continue to focus on every single day."
In a bid to shore up airport security amid the staffing crisis, President Donald Trump ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to assist TSA at airports across the country.
Agents have been spotted at multiple major hubs, providing much-needed manpower as TSA officers struggle under the weight of unpaid work and mounting attrition.
When asked how long ICE agents would remain in place once a spending bill passes, Stahl said their presence has eased some of the immediate strain but cautioned that their continued deployment depends on how quickly TSA can rebuild normal operations.
"Hopefully, we won't need them much longer," Stahl explained.
"But again, they've been incredibly helpful, and we really appreciate the support from the president and from ICE."
"It really necessitates and underscores the importance for us to get back in normal order, for the Senate Democrats to fund the Department, [to] fund TSA, so we can get back to normal order," Stahl added.
For now, the nations aviation security system is being held together by unpaid officers, temporary ICE reinforcements and an agency leadership bracing for a wave of departures once paychecks finally resume.
With the World Cup and a heavy summer travel season on the horizon, the stakes of continued Democratic obstruction on DHS funding extend far beyond Washingtons partisan skirmishes and directly into the safety and convenience of millions of American travelers.
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