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TSA forced to consolidate lanes, may have to close small airports as funding deal stalls

By
Nicole Sganga
Nicole Sganga
Homeland Security and Justice Correspondent
Nicole Sganga is CBS News' homeland security and justice correspondent. She is based in Washington, D.C., and reports for all shows and platforms.
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Nicole Sganga

/ CBS News

The TSA's top official says the situation at U.S. airports could get even worse if the partial government shutdown that has frozen officers' paychecks continues.

"We are being forced to consolidate lanes and may have to close smaller airports if we do not have enough officers," acting TSA administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill said Wednesday at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing. 

Republicans and Democrats have traded proposals in recent days to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the TSA. But there has been no deal so far. 

The Democrats' latest rejected counteroffer included requirements that federal immigration agents wear body cameras and identification in the field, a source told CBS News.

"We have differences of opinion when it comes to ICE," said Sen. Dick Durbin.

George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston is one of the epicenters of the TSA headache. As few as a third of the security lanes there are operational at any given time, and wait times have regularly exceeded four hours.

Roughly 40% of the staff have called out of work as they await a funding deal to restart their paychecks. Over the past six months, TSA has gone without funding for 86 days and counting. More than 480 officers have quit altogether since the start of the partial government shutdown.

One traveler told CBS News he isn't angry with TSA workers for not showing up and sympathizes "with the fact they've got to feed their families and take care of business."

In Houston, help is on the way, with at least two dozen reinforcements — members of TSA's rapid response team — expected to arrive Thursday to assist in passenger screenings. 

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