House Homeland Security hearing spotlights operational harms from multi‑week DHS shutdown

Chairman Garbarino opened a House Homeland Security hearing by calling the ongoing DHS funding lapse "reckless, dangerous, and unacceptable," and saying the shutdown has caused "massive disruptions" to airports, cybersecurity and disaster response. Ranking Member Mr. Thompson replied that both parties and White House decisions bear responsibility and pressed for immediate funding and oversight, including for ICE and CBP leadership that Democrats asked to testify but were not invited.

Witnesses from four DHS components described immediate operational consequences. "If this shutdown continues, we will continue to lose talented and experienced employees," Acting Administrator Ms. Ham McNeal of the Transportation Security Administration told the panel, noting the agency has lost "over 480 TSOs this shutdown" and that it takes "4 to 6 months to onboard and train a new TSO." Ms. McNeal said TSA had been shut down for "50% of the time, or 85 days" this fiscal year and warned that newly hired officers would not be able to be deployed in time for the FIFA World Cup.

Admiral Thomas G. Allen, the Coast Guard's vice commandant, said repeated lapses are eroding readiness and trust: the service has been without funding for roughly half the past 176 days, has a growing backlog of more than 16,000 merchant mariner credential applications, and has incurred more than $200 million in obligations to industry partners that it cannot pay. "Every day the shutdown drags on moves us closer to a tipping point," the admiral said.

Acting Director Nick Anderson of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency warned that roughly 60% of CISA's staff are furloughed or otherwise unable to work, and that reduced capacity has forced the agency to scale back proactive functions such as assessments, partnership engagements and rulemaking work under the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act (CIRCIA). "When the government shuts down, our adversaries do not," he said.

Victoria Barton of FEMA told members that more than 4,000 FEMA staff are going without pay and said the Disaster Relief Fund was at about $3.6 billion. She cautioned that outstanding obligations and major disasters could deplete that balance rapidly and delay grant disbursements and training critical to local emergency responders.

Lawmakers used the hearing to press competing procedural and policy points: several Republicans emphasized near‑term public‑safety risks and urged immediate funding votes, while Democrats stressed accountability for ICE and CBP and sought reforms before supporting additional appropriations for those components. Members from both parties repeatedly highlighted the human cost to DHS personnel: missed paychecks, higher call‑out and attrition rates at checkpoints, and staff who have missed mortgage and utility payments.

Witnesses described short‑term mitigation steps but warned of limits. Ms. McNeal said TSA was training other DHS personnel (including ICE) to perform limited, non‑specialized functions such as queue management and operation of travel‑document authentication equipment so TSA officers could focus on specialized screening, but several members contested how rapidly such cross‑training could be done and whether it was being implemented in every field location. Admiral Allen described increasing vendor and contractor payment risks that could trigger stop‑work orders and deepen maintenance backlogs. Mr. Anderson described resignations of highly technical CISA staff and said the compounding loss of institutional expertise poses real cyber risk.

The hearing concluded with committee leaders asking the witnesses for written follow‑ups; the record was held open for 10 days. Members indicated they expected additional floor action to attempt to reopen DHS funding in coming days.