“Funding Lapse and Security Gaps: Assessing the Harmful Impacts of the DHS Shutdown on Americans”

Committee on Homeland Security will come to order. Without objection, the chair may declare the committee in recess at any point. For purpose of today's hearing is to assess harmful impacts of the DHS shutdown. Chair reminds all members that the chair will enforce the rules of decorum at all times and urges all members to be mindful of their remarks. I now recognize myself for an opening statement. Good morning. I want to start by thanking our witnesses for appearing before the committee today. Chuck Schumer and the Senate Democrats shut down the Department of Homeland Security 40 days ago. Their actions are reckless, dangerous, and unacceptable. Today, we are fortunate to hear from the leadership of four DHS components that have been dealing with the direct impacts this shutdown has placed on their agencies, their missions, and their workforce. It is unfortunate that Senate Democrats chose to shut down DHS and weaken our national security posture for their own political gain, especially at such a critical time and heightened threat environment across the homeland. Senate Democrats have repeatedly held up and voted against a bipartisan, bicameral deal to fund DHS for fiscal year 2026. Recent developments in the Senate are showing some potential momentum towards hopefully ending this harmful shutdown soon. If a deal is proposed, we look forward to reviewing it quickly. But the fact is that DHS is still shut down today and we should never have been in the position in the first place. And once this shutdown eventually does end, the department and its workforce will be left dealing with the damaging consequences of it for a long time and lawmakers need to be prepared to support them, another reason why our hearing today is so important. I expect members on the other side of the aisle to speak today about how they support funding for some DHS agencies, including those appearing before us today such as TSA, but they do not support the rest of DHS including ICE and CBP. To withhold funding from the department is not only flawed, but immensely dangerous. The Department of Homeland Security was created after the terrorist attacks of September 11, in direct response to operational silos among security agencies and general failures in coordination and information sharing. As a lifelong Neworker and the representative of a community forever marked by the September 11 terrorist attacks, the mission of the department is deeply personal for me. 25 years later, its purpose is essential as ever. Putting the fragmented pieces together under a single entity was the primary objective in creating the Department of Homeland Security. The department exists to ensure that all agencies and personnel entrusted with protecting the lives of the American people are working together to accomplish their interconnected missions to protect, defend, and secure the homeland. Democrats have argued to throw out that framework by proposing Congress fund some DHS agencies but not others. This approach would dangerously degrade interagency coordination. Responding to threats, protecting the American people, and preparing the country for future events requires the coordinated efforts of dozens of DHS agencies and hundreds of thousands of dedicated individuals all working together to accomplish the department's no-fail mission. The shutdown has caused massive disruptions across our airports and travel system nationwide, weakened our nation's cybersecurity posture, and left states unsupported. With less than 100 days until the start of major events across the United States such as FIFA World Cup, Sail 250, and America 250, we cannot afford to let DHS go unfunded and unsupported. TSA security officers, CISA cyber defenders, civilian Coast Guard personnel, and FEMA emergency management professionals, while deemed essential, are going unpaid. Trump administration has been able to pay military and law enforcement personnel, but this is not a long-term solution. We must focus on funding the DHS workforce. These are public servants who care about the department's mission. These men and women keep our nation safe every day. We need the best and the brightest to defend the United States from sophisticated adversaries and dynamic threats, and this dysfunction and uncertainty only makes it harder for DHS to recruit and retain talented public servants. Washington cannot continue to disrespect and devalue their work without consequence. While back pay is helpful in the long run, mortgage payments, rent, healthcare, childcare, car and electric bills were due yesterday. Providing food for your family cannot be put on hold while Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats play politics with national security. I'm extremely concerned about the long-term impacts that this shutdown will have and already has had. Compounded by the lingering impacts of the 43-day shutdown that DHS experienced last fall on the recruitment and retention of DHS personnel. Over 1,550 TSOs have left TSA during the past two shutdowns. It takes four to six months to onboard and train a new TSO. With the FIFA World Cup across 11 U.S. cities starting June 11, millions of international fans are expected to travel through our nation's airports. This presents a dire situation both in terms of efficiency and security and it only gets worse with each passing day. In the last several weeks, we have seen acts of violence across the country from Austin, Texas to West Bloomfield, Michigan and ISIS-inspired attacks at Old Dominion University and in New York City, reminding us of the persistent threat of terrorism we face and why a fully funded and functional DHS is so critical. New leadership at the department with Secretary Markwayne Mullin presents an opportunity to make improvements across the board and move forward together. This shutdown is not a game and frankly, I'm tired of it being treated like one. The stakes are too high. We owe it to the American people to stop the political games, to fund DHS, and to get back to regular order. I hope all my colleagues will use this opportunity today to hear from the witnesses about the harmful operational and security impacts that this shutdown has caused and the long-term consequences that we need to be prepared to address. I look forward to a productive conversation with our leaders here today. I now recognize the ranking member, the gentleman from Mississippi, Mr. Thompson, for his opening statement.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and I welcome our panel of witnesses before us today. Mr. Chairman, Republicans holding this hearing decrying the Department of Homeland Security shutdown is a height of hypocrisy, not only because they and their president are to blame for the shutdown, but also because they are complicit in causing irreparable damage over the 15 months to DHS, its mission, and its workforce. Let me be clear at the outset that Democrats want to fund TSA, FEMA, CISA, and the Coast Guard and have repeatedly offered bills to do just that. However, Republicans have blocked all of them. Let me say that again. Republicans have repeatedly blocked bills Democrats offered to fund every agency before this committee today. Republicans control every part of government and could have funded these agencies with Democratic support but chose not to. Republicans could pay TSA agents today but choose not to. You don't have to take my word for it. Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana told Fox News that when Senate Republican leadership informed the president that his conference was prepared to accept the Democratic compromise position, the president said, and I quote, "No deals with Democrats." So this is a Republican shutdown. But as per usual, they take no responsibility. Maybe that's because they know the president is desperately trying to distract the public from his thousands of appearances in the Epstein files and the war he needlessly started in Iran. They know Trump doesn't want the media or the public talking about the affordability crisis he created or skyrocketing gas prices or raising inflation. Rather than do what's right for homeland security, the frontline personnel working without a paycheck, or the traveling public, congressional Republicans do Trump's bidding every time. He snaps his fingers and they jump. Their only question is how high. And that's what we have here today. A shutdown congressional Republicans agreed to in order to cover for Trump. Even today's hearing is designed to cover for him. I requested that the chairman extend invitations to ICE and CBP leadership to testify today, but he declined to do so. I respect the chairman, but his decision is a troubling departure from committee practice. I've served on this committee since its inception and I know firsthand how this committee has been run since it was stood up after 9/11. Republicans have now set an unfortunate precedent they'll have to live with going forward. But the facts remain that ICE and CBP should be here today because those agencies are critical to the full resolution of DHS's funding issues. Mr. Chairman, pursuant to clause 2(j)(1) of rule 11, I am furnishing you with a demand for a minority day hearing on the subject of today's hearing signed by Democratic members. Democrats want to ensure that before we give even more money to ICE and CBP, which is already flush with cash, by the way, that we ring in the deadly abuses we saw in Minneapolis. We owe Renee Good and Alex Priddy that much. As attorney for Renee Good's family implored the committee in a letter this week, do not forget the unthinkable killing of Renee, a loving and peaceful American mother of three, and the broader harm done to other Americans. Trump doesn't want people to remember how his secret police shot innocent Americans dead and terrorized communities. We won't let the victims be forgotten and we honor Renee and Alex's memory by fighting to ensure it never, ever happens again. I'm extremely troubled that Trump has deployed ICE agents to airports around the country. We cannot allow what happened on the streets of Minneapolis to happen in our nation's capital. According to the chairman's testimony, TSOs receive six months of training. ICE agents, according to testimony that we received before this committee, receive 47 days. So I don't understand how people with less training is going to help people who have more training. These agents cannot do TSA's job, nor should they, and they aren't trained to do it. So we see images of ICE agents standing around or walking through terminals doing nothing to reduce the lines at security checkpoints while TSA personnel continue to do their jobs without pay because Republicans refuse to vote for legislation to fund TSA. It's ridiculous and maddening, but not surprising. Since Donald Trump took over, he's done everything in his power to destroy the Department of Homeland Security, weaponize it against American people, and hurt the workforce. He sent DOGE into DHS and fired or forced out thousands of hardworking employees with irreplaceable homeland security expertise. At FEMA, more than 2,000 hardworking employees left the agency and CISA lost about 1,000 employees or a third of its staff. He cut critical homeland security programs and is intentionally withholding grants from nonprofits like synagogues, churches, and mosques and disaster funding from communities that desperately need it. He also attacked DHS worker union rights and his administration is suing to end transportation security officers' collective bargaining rights as we speak. They are the hard-won rights of the very same officers Republicans are claiming to care so much about. This administration has done nothing but marginalize and denigrate TSA from the moment Trump was sworn in. Meanwhile, Democrats have been fighting for the TSA workforce since long before Republicans discovered this week, apparently, that DHS is more than just ICE and CBP. Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, Tom Homan, Kristi Noem, and Corey Lewandowski have tried to turn ICE into a national police force, a weapon for their political agenda, while systematically neglecting the critical mission of TSA, FEMA, CISA, and the Coast Guard. As part of their effort, Trump has installed incompetent and unfit DHS leadership who have used their positions for personal gain. At the top of the list is disgraced former Secretary Kristi Noem, who lived rent-free in government housing meant for military leadership. She wasted millions of taxpayers' dollars on ad campaigns and photo ops complete with hair, makeup, and a rented horse for $20,000 for her to pose on for the cameras. And her so-called special government employee, Corey Lewandowski, used his position and close relationship with Noem to steer contracts and sweetheart deals to his cronies in a pay-to-play scheme that has him under investigation. FEMA is on its third unqualified acting administrator in 15 months and the witness that was scheduled to testify today, Mr. Greg Phillips, raises serious concerns. He said of President Biden last year, and I quote, "I'd like to punch that [expletive] in the mouth right now. He deserves to die and I hope he does," unquote. Mr. Phillips reportedly claims to have been involuntarily teleported multiple times, including once to a Waffle House in Georgia. That kind of violent rhetoric and wild conspiracy theories are troubling for someone who holds a leadership position at DHS. For their part, congressional Republicans have sat idly by and watched it all happen, often enabling, encouraging, and cheering on this madness. So to my Republican colleagues, spare us your crocodile tears today. Your talk is cheap and the theatrics are nothing but performance. This hearing won't get DHS employees a paycheck. I urge my Republican colleagues to stop the performance and start governing. Join Democrats in passing legislation to reopen DHS today. Mr. Chairman, I yield back.

Gentleman yields back. I appreciate the gentleman's request for... Gentleman yields back. I appreciate the gentleman's request for a minority member day hearing and we will take it under consideration. I also have to address something the gentleman said in his opening statement about me going against committee precedent. As the gentleman knows, it is not committee nor House precedent for minority executive branch witnesses on executive branch panels. Further, both ICE and CBP testified in front of this committee five weeks ago. And there was also a statement about how Republicans voted against funding TSA and other agencies. I know myself sitting up here have voted, as well as my other colleagues, have voted twice already to pay TSA workers and all the other employees at DHS and I look forward to voting again to pay them this week. I cannot, I don't think my Democratic colleagues can say the same. So I appreciate the gentleman's opening statement, but I want to stick to the facts here. And with that, other members of the committee are reminded that opening statements may be submitted for the record. I would now like to formally introduce our witnesses. Ms. Ha McNeill serves as the senior official of the Transportation Security Administration, TSA, performing the duties of the administrator. Ms. McNeill was appointed deputy administrator in 2025 and was previously the chief of staff at TSA. She has a background in national security and technology policy with prior experience across the National Security Council, the Office of Management and Budget, and private sector roles. Admiral Thomas G. Allan serves as the vice commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, serving as the service's second-in-command since February 2026. As a career Coast Guard officer with nearly 35 years, he has led major command operations overseeing mission support operations at U.S. Southern Command and Coast Guard activities across the Northeast. Mr. Nick Andersen serves as the acting director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA. He was appointed in February 2026 after serving as the agency's executive assistant director for cybersecurity. He is a senior cybersecurity leader and U.S. Marine Corps veteran with prior experience across the Department of Energy, the White House Office of Management and Budget, and the private sector. Ms. Victoria Barton is the associate administrator of the Office of External Affairs at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Ms. Barton brings nearly a decade of emergency management and disaster recovery experience. I thank all the witnesses for being here today. Pursuant to committee rule 8C, I ask that the witnesses rise and raise their right hand. Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you will give before the Committee on Homeland Security for the United States House of Representatives will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

I do.

Let the record reflect that the witnesses have answered in the affirmative. Thank you and please be seated. I now recognize Ms. McNeill for five minutes to summarize her opening statement.

Chairman Garbarino, Ranking Member Thompson, and members of the committee. Thank you for the invitation to testify before you today on behalf of the Transportation Security Administration. This fiscal year, TSA has been shut down for 50 percent of the time or 85 days. And if still shut down this Friday, we will have reached nearly $1 billion in missed paychecks. This level of disruption is unprecedented and unacceptable and significantly undermines the security of U.S. transportation systems. Ninety-nine percent of the TSA workforce operates outside of the National Capital Region, working across the country, living within your districts and communities. Ninety-five percent or more than 61,000 of TSA's employees must continue working without pay during a shutdown. Congress and the traveling public should be proud of the excellent job that the TSA workforce does to protect our national security. Paying these dedicated employees for the work they are performing should never be a point of debate. And yet here we are on the 40th day of our third shutdown this fiscal year. Many in our workforce have missed bill payments, received eviction notices, had their cars repossessed and utilities shut off, lost their childcare, defaulted on loans, damaged their credit line, and drained their retirement savings. Some are sleeping in their cars, selling their blood and plasma, and taking on second jobs to make ends meet, all while being expected to perform at the highest level when in uniform to protect the traveling public. A Transportation Security Officer at Reagan National Airport recently said, "I just want Congress to pay me for the job I am doing." During the 43-day shutdown last fall, TSA experienced a 25 percent increase in TSO separations when compared to that same time period the year before. We have already lost over 480 TSOs this shutdown and our call-out rates have accelerated as our workforce was still reeling from the last shutdown. Prior to this shutdown, our TSO call-out rate was 4 percent. Now multiple major airports are experiencing days where 40 to 50 percent of their staff are calling out because they simply cannot afford to report to work. This has led to the highest wait times in TSA history with some wait times greater than four and a half hours. We are being forced to consolidate lanes and may have to close smaller airports if we do not have enough officers. It is a fluid, challenging, and unpredictable situation. We understand this is frustrating and disruptive. Unfortunately, we have seen an over 500 percent increase in the frequency of assaults on our officers since this shutdown began. This is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. We are pursuing all legal avenues to prosecute these incidents. To the traveling public, we ask for your patience and understanding as our officers are working their hardest to ensure you can travel safety, safely all the while not getting paid. As the shutdown drags on, we fear we will continue to lose talented and experienced employees to other jobs that can provide a steady paycheck. Not only is the shutdown decreasing the number of interested candidates, for those we are able to hire, they are required to complete four to six months of training before they are certified to work at checkpoints. At this point, newly hired officers will not be able to work on the checkpoint until well after the 2026 FIFA World Cup. This is a dire situation. We are facing a potential perfect storm of severe staffing shortages and an influx of millions of passengers at our airports for the World Cup games in less than 80 days. I'm thankful to President Trump and Border Czar Tom Homan for their leadership and our ICE colleagues for helping the TSA workforce at key airports, enabling TSA officers to focus on carrying out critical security screening duties during this challenging time for our agency. And I look forward to supporting Secretary Mullen in advancing the collective priorities of the department. We truly are one DHS, one mission. Congress consolidated 22 agencies and established DHS to unify our homeland security defenses and prevent another 9/11. Moments like these highlight the importance of a unified and fully funded DHS. I respectfully call upon Congress to fund the Department of Homeland Security and to ensure this never happens again. I thank you and I look forward to your questions.

Thank you, Ms. McNeill. I now recognize Admiral Allan for five minutes to summarize his opening statement.

Chairman Garbarino, Ranking Member Thompson, and distinguished members of this committee. Thank you for inviting me to testify today. The Coast Guard is a proud member of the Department of Homeland Security and the only armed force within DHS. As a vital instrument of national power, we save lives, control, secure, and defend the U.S. border and maritime approaches, ensure the flow of commerce that is vital to America's economic prosperity and strategic mobility, and respond to crises at a moment's notice. Every action we take is dedicated to protecting our nation. The American people depend on us and we provide a remarkable return on investment, but only with consistent and predictable appropriations. For 85 of the last 176 days, almost 50 percent of the time, the Coast Guard has not had funding needing to operate and pay our workforce. Most importantly, the lapse is creating an unacceptable financial strain on our people. Our dedicated civilian employees have already missed several paychecks, leaving them without resources to support their family. Our military members and their families are operating under grim uncertainty of whether they will receive their next paycheck. And our deployed crews conducting critical national security missions are accumulating thousands of dollars in expenses with no way of being reimbursed. These realities erode the sacred trust our men and women have in the nation they serve. The work our crews perform every day is dangerous. Any distraction puts our crews at risk. From our tactical boarding teams executing counter-narcotics missions to our rescue swimmers deploying from helicopters into rough seas. Our crews should not have to worry about if their families will be able to pay rent or buy groceries. The shutdown is also eroding mission readiness and causing severe financial hardships for businesses who provide us with goods and services. A few examples. We see many preparations for FIFA World Cup and America 250. That's only 79 days away. We have incurred over $200 million in obligations to industry partners for operations, a bill we are prohibited from paying until this shutdown ends. We can't pay over 5,000 utility accounts, putting us in imminent danger of widespread shutdowns to critical infrastructure. And our inability to pay for parts and services risks triggering stop-work orders, which could worsen our existing maintenance backlog and impact readiness. Our National Maritime Center remains closed, halting the issuance of over 16,000 merchant marine credentials, with a backlog growing by 300 a day. Every day the shutdown drags on moves us closer to a tipping point. And we know through experience, it will take us about two and a half days to recover for every day we are in a shutdown. If the shutdown ended today, we wouldn't catch up until July 3. The Coast Guard will continue to serve because that is what our people have sworn to do. But our crews should never question whether the nation they protect will stand behind them and their families. Stable funding for DHS is not simply a budgetary matter. It's a matter of trust, readiness, and national security. Our service members will keep their watch. We only ask that they are supported while they do that. Thank you, I look forward to your questions.

Thank you, Admiral Allan. I now recognize Mr. Anderson for five minutes. Thank you, Admiral Allan. I now recognize Mr. Andersen for five minutes to summarize his opening statement.

Chairman Garbarino, Ranking Member Thompson, and distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. My name is Nick Andersen, I'm currently serving as the acting director of CISA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. I joined CISA last September after serving in senior cybersecurity roles in the private sector, at the White House, and leading the Department of Energy's sector risk management agency function. I've also served as a state chief information security officer and as a chief information officer within the intelligence community and as a United States Marine. These experiences have given me a clear understanding of the threat environment we face and the consequences when we are not fully postured to meet it. So let me be direct. When the government shuts down, our adversaries do not. For the past 39 days, CISA has operated under its third shutdown this fiscal year. CISA's workforce continues to demonstrate an unwavering dedication to mission during this challenging time. Approximately 60 percent of our workforce is furloughed or otherwise unable to work. The remaining personnel are carrying out mission-essential functions without pay while facing increased pressure from nation-state and criminal actors targeting our nation's critical infrastructure. This is not a sustainable model. This shutdown affects morale, stability, and the overall well-being of our people. Quickly restoring funding for DHS remains essential to CISA's success at safeguarding the nation's critical infrastructure. Under the Trump administration, CISA is focused on our number one priority: protecting and defending the American people from cyber and physical threats. During the shutdown, CISA is largely limited to protecting life and property, responding to imminent threats, maintaining our 24/7 operations center, and sharing critical vulnerability and incident information at a reduced capacity. These are necessary functions, but they are not sufficient to get ahead of the threat. What has been scaled back or paused are the very activities that reduce systemic risk over time: proactive assessments, coordinated planning, partnership engagement, and strategic initiatives across the federal enterprise and critical infrastructure sectors. The result is simple: risk is accumulating across the system. Delays in issuing binding operational directives, reduced coordination with industry partners, and constrained incident response capacity all create openings for our adversaries. These are not theoretical risks. They are real vulnerabilities that grow with time. The lapse in appropriations for DHS has impacted CISA's ability to proactively mitigate cyber risk and to support physical security resilience at a time when there are numerous large-scale events, including the America 250 celebration events and the FIFA World Cup, each of which requires heightened preparedness. Equally concerning, key efforts to finalize the rulemaking process for the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act, or CIRCIA, have been paused. This delays our ability to build a more coordinated, timely, and effective national cyber defense. Every day the shutdown continues, we're not just standing still, we're falling behind. I would like to express my appreciation for your efforts on the reauthorization of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015. This authority underpins the trust, speed, and collaboration between government and the private sector that are essential to defending the nation's critical infrastructure. In closing, CISA's mission remains unchanged: to protect and defend the American people. But we cannot do that at full strength under sustained funding uncertainty. And I want to be clear, the men and women of CISA are doing everything we've asked of them and more under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. They are mission-focused, but they are not immune to the real financial and personal strain this creates for their families. We need stability, we need continuity, and we need the ability to operate proactively, not just reactively. Thank you for your support and the opportunity to appear today, I look forward to your questions.

Thank you, Mr. Andersen. I now recognize Ms. Barton for five minutes to summarize her opening statement.

Chairman Garbarino, Ranking Member Thompson, and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify before you on the impacts of this government shutdown on the Federal Emergency Management Agency. I am Victoria Barton, associate administrator for the Office of External Affairs, and I look forward to this conversation. FEMA, a component of DHS, is the nation's lead agency for disaster response and recovery, as well as consequence management after terrorist attacks and catastrophic events. FEMA provides critical funding, training, and preparedness support to communities across America, including security planning for major events like the FIFA World Cup and America 250. With the current lapse, FEMA's ability to support Americans before, during, and after disasters is at risk. This is especially concerning as the nation faces heightened national security concerns. Currently, over 4,000 FEMA employees are going without pay, with many working through their third shutdown in less than a year. Staff are under significant financial and emotional strain, trying to serve their communities with fewer resources. The Disaster Relief Fund, which is the source of federal funding for disaster response and recovery operations, is also rapidly depleting. If this shutdown continues and the disaster relief fund is depleted, FEMA will be unable to fund much of the disaster recovery efforts. This is not just rhetoric. These impacts are having dire rippling effects for thousands of Americans and communities across the United States. Disaster survivors waiting for assistance may face increased uncertainty and hardship. Local officials working to rebuild after hurricanes or floods may be unable to access federal support. And FEMA staff, many of whom have served through multiple disasters, are now struggling to pay their bills and support their families while also continuing to serve the public. In addition to these major disruptions to disaster response and recovery, FEMA's lack of funding is having dire consequences on its national security mission. The funding lapse is preventing FEMA staff from supporting critical programs that protect communities from targeted violence and terrorism. For example, houses of worship and other nonprofits across the country are unable to access additional security grant funding that would help safeguard them against threats. This means organizations like Temple Israel in Michigan, which recently experienced a violent attack, cannot receive the support they need to protect their congregants and staff. These type of programs are essential to FEMA's national security mission, and the inability to process grant actions puts vulnerable communities at even greater risk. Almost all of FEMA's training courses have been postponed due to the shutdown, including critical anti-terrorism preparedness courses and many others. The importance of these training courses cannot be measured, but their absence is being felt nationwide. Every week, over 40,000 students, primarily local emergency managers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, are denied the opportunity to learn how to better protect their communities. The reality is this: with hurricane season approaching, each day of this shutdown increases the risk that a catastrophic disaster could occur while FEMA's capacity to respond and support recovery is diminished. This shutdown is imposing far-reaching and serious consequences for FEMA's operations and the nation's ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters. I urge Congress to immediately pass funding for the department so we can carry out our duties and our responsibilities of serving and protecting the American people. Thank you for your support and the opportunity to appear before you today, I look forward to our questions.

Thank you, Ms. Barton. Members will be recognized by order of seniority for their five minutes of questioning. I'll be strictly keeping to the five-minute rule. I now recognize myself for five minutes of questions. Ms. McNeill, you talk about closed the possible closure of small airports. Maybe TSA should shut down Dulles and DCA so the Democrat senators can't get out of here when they try to leave this week and you should keep them here until they actually pass some funding. I want to bring up, you talked about the loss, I talked about a number, you talked about a number of how many TSOs you've lost, but something you said definitely scared me. The onboarding of new TSOs, you said they will not be trained properly enough to work on the lines in time for FIFA, is that right?

Chairman, that is correct. It takes a TSO four to six months to be fully certified in all functions to operate a checkpoint. And so at this point if we bring on any new TSOs, those folks will not be deployed in time by FIFA. And so we are watching our attrition rates very closely to make sure that, you know, if we see any spikes we'll have to pivot and assess how we are going to staff the FIFA locations adequately.

So what, yeah, so that scares me that, you know, we are, it's a four to six month delay of getting new people on the line from new hires. So every day we lose someone, we can't replace them for at least, and that's if they get hired the same day, we can't replace the person we lost for six months, four to six months. That is definitely very scary. Acting Director Andersen, you mentioned 56 percent of your workforce is furloughed and the rest are working without pay. Can you help the American people understand what is not getting done right now at CISA that should be getting done?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There's a variety of assessments that CISA completes day-to-day, whether that's working with the private sector or it's working with our state and local partners or across the federal ecosystem. There's an exceedingly dynamic threat environment, as you know, both in the cybersecurity landscape and in the physical security landscape. So even a reduced capacity within these essential functions presents a real opportunity for our adversaries to be able to take advantage of that gap in capability.

So, I mean, I've been on this committee since I first got to Congress in 2021. We have talked repeatedly about how Iran has been one of our biggest cybersecurity adversaries. They attack us millions of times a day. And with this heightened threat environment, what are your immediate priorities when it comes to cybersecurity in the agency?

Well, specifically regarding that nation-state actor, we've pulled together a tremendous amount of information from indicators of compromise to tactics, techniques, and procedures pertaining to their typical behaviors that we see in cyberspace. We've been able to share that with our sector-based colleagues across critical infrastructure and across the federal and state communities. We continue to provide sort of heightened awareness at the capacity that we can during a shutdown in order to be able to provide cybersecurity alerting for all nation-state risks, and in particular those pertaining to critical infrastructure.

Have you been... I know a lot of the times our local, state, and local governments are the focus of these attacks. Has the shutdown affected your ability to deal with the state and local partners to make sure they're protected?

Many of the proactive services that we provide free of charge from CISA, that's core to our mission here. And yes, absolutely, every segment of the customers that we serve have been impacted here, including state and locals and their ability to receive these services and receive the threat intelligence that we would typically provide. Though again, the most essential information that we can provide at the capacity we have today, we're continuing to share with them.

Ms. Barton, I appreciate your ability to fill in quickly for Mr. Phillips today. And I want to thank both you and him. Even during the shutdown, we've been working with your team, both you and Mr. Phillips, to try to get a lot of the grants that FEMA manages, the security grants and nonprofit, all of them, old money that's owed out or prepared to go out the door for when the shutdown ends. So I do appreciate, even though you're all in the middle of a shutdown, you're still working towards getting those things done for when the shutdown finally ends. You talked about with the DRF. What's the number that... What's the DRF at right now?

Thank you, Chairman. The DRF is at... Thank you, Chairman. The DRF is at $3.6 billion right now.

And we're in the... Yeah, so $3.6 billion, which is not a lot of money for the DRF, and we're dealing with a lot of fires, I think in Nebraska, there were tornadoes, a lot of mega-storms in both the Northeast and Hawaii. Just quickly, how quickly would that... Would FEMA's remaining DRF sources be depleted if there was a major storm? You have 13 seconds, sorry.

Thank you, Chairman. Depending on the magnitude of the storm, it could be depleted pretty rapidly. And I think the concern right now is that there's many outstanding obligations that need to be addressed. Thank you.

I appreciate that answer. My time is up. I now recognize the gentleman from Mississippi, the ranking member, Mr. Thompson.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Ms. Barton, you're the first FEMA person we've had come before this committee this entire session. We had all of last year, we didn't have a FEMA person. And we're three months in and obviously because of Mr. Phillips' emergency, you had to fill in. Are you aware of the Secretary's edict of saying we can only approve contracts less than $100,000 without her having personal knowledge of the contracts?

Ranking Member, thank you for having me today. I am honored to be before you. I am aware that we have a new Secretary. Secretary Mullen has been sworn in and confirmed. We are looking forward to his guidance and vision and stand ready to implement as we receive that.

So can you tell me currently how many contracts are not signed because of this $100,000? I don't want to talk about the incoming Secretary. Just give me an aggregate number.

I don't have full visibility into all the pending contracts. I understand it is a priority to address those. A lot of our staff is furloughed and impacted by this current lapse. However, I do know that there are large efforts to address any contracts that are pending.

You've heard him say that?

Yes.

All right. So are you aware that there were disasters in North Carolina and other states where the governors were Democratic that were delayed in approving the contracts versus states where the leadership was Republican?

As far as North Carolina, I had the pleasure to meet with Governor Stein when he was in Washington, D.C. He came to FEMA. We had an excellent meeting. That same week we were able to announce hazard mitigation funds as well as public assistance. As far as other governors, I know over this last week there was flash flooding occurring in Hawaii. I understand that our leadership was in close communication with Governor Green. And so that's really our focus. My priority every day is ensuring that the people who are being impacted...

So if I told you that 89 percent of disaster declarations from Republican-led states were approved versus 23 percent from Democratic states have been approved, have you seen those statistics?

I did get a peek at the data that was provided, that assessment on how they came to that number. I don't know that their methodology was very sound given the... It's been a span of many years and disasters vary by year and geographical location and the type of impact that happens.

So but you have seen the report I'm referring to.

I've seen it. I think it was like a Politico article. Yeah.

So you've seen it.

I'm aware of what they reported.

Okay, well thank you. Mr. Andersen, how many vacancies do you have at CISA right now?

Approximately a thousand, Ranking Member.

How long have those vacancies existed?

I think there's a variety of sources of the attrition, so I couldn't give you a specific point in time. You know, we have a continued flow of people out the door, in particular as we continue to see the impacts of the shutdown and the uncertainty that creates for our employees.

Before the shutdown, how many vacancies did you have?

I'd have to go back and get you a specific number for before the shutdown, sir.

Please get it to me. Because I think you had that many. How are you filling them at this point?

Well, I think at this point, sir, the greatest focus for me is the impact on the employees that are serving the mission right now. You know, and the choices that they're having to make every single day between continuing to serve their nation or continuing to be able to pay their bills and take care of their families. I yield back.

Gentleman yields back. I now recognize the gentleman from Texas, former chairman of this committee, Mr. McCaul, for five minutes of questions.

Thanks, Chairman. We're here today because at a time when our nation is facing heightened threats, Democrats have shut down the Department of Homeland Security. DHS was created in the aftermath of September 11 attacks to protect and secure the homeland. Shutting it down is national security malpractice. And it's shameful. We've already seen four ISIS-inspired attacks on our homeland in recent weeks, including one in my hometown of Austin, where three innocent people were killed at the hands of a terrorist. And this week, the Iranian regime said it plans to attack parks, recreational areas, and tourist sites around the world, as America 250 celebrations will be held at all those sites. This shutdown must end. And I was disappointed to hear Senate Democrats rejected yet another good faith offer from Republicans that contained many of their requests. Hopefully this will change soon. But in the meantime, our nation is on red alert. The Biden administration's open border policy allowed more than 700 Iranian nationals and 18,000 known or suspected terrorists to enter our country, posing a serious national security threat. We need a functioning Department of Homeland Security to counter the threat of sleeper cells in this nation. The shutdown is also wreaking havoc at TSA lines at our airports, and we see this every day on the television. The problem runs deeper than just travel disruption. For decades, aviation threats have been the crown jewel of terrorists, from Al-Qaeda to ISIS and its affiliates. Since the shutdown, TSA employees have been forced to work without pay. 400 officers have quit their jobs, constraining the agency's ability to protect the traveling public. This is alarming, especially as we approach the FIFA World Cup and America 250. In just three months, our nation will host millions of visitors who will travel throughout our airports. And as the chairman of this committee's special events task force, I'm laser-focused on protecting our homeland during these events. Let's focus not only on the physical threat, but the cyber threat as well. When I chaired this committee, I created the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to defend against cyberattacks. We heard the chairman talk about the threat from Iran. Reports say fewer than half of CISA's employees are currently working, disrupting our ability to deter and mitigate threats to our critical infrastructure. Lastly, I know that many FEMA grants are not being dispersed because of the shutdown. I helped secure the nonprofit security grant program. These provide security to houses of worship, which are coming under attack far too often. Just a couple weeks ago, an ISIS-inspired terrorist watched the Temple Israel synagogue in Michigan and then attacked them in a terrorist attack. We need these grants out now. I'm hopeful that we will also reauthorize the DHS mission to counter weapons of mass destruction, a crucial office that remains not authorized today, and I think poses a serious threat. In the remainder of time that I have, there's so many issues to cover, but I want to talk about TSA, CISA, and these grants. To TSA, you know, you have the operations center I've been to many times that monitor traffic across the world globally and aviation threats globally. Can you tell me what impact the shutdown is having on that? And Mr. Andersen, if you could tell me about CISA's, without these employees, not being able to connect the dots and share it with the private sector, what impact that is having? Ms. Barton, can you tell me about the lack of funding to protect particularly Jewish synagogues across this nation, as we know the Iran threat is real inside the United States and our homeland? Ms. McNeill.

Thank you, Congressman. Our operations center is up and running and we're doing everything that we can during this time to maintain a strong security posture, especially during this heightened threat environment. Our officers are doing a tremendous job showing up every day at work and screening the traveling public to make sure that they're making it to their destination safely. But I will say, it is a real human toll to wake up and show up to work every day not knowing how you're going to pay your bills. And so I am, of course, concerned about the workforce. And the longer this shutdown goes on and more missed paychecks, we are really putting ourselves and our workforce in a perilous situation.

And Mr. Andersen, very briefly.

You're correct, sir. Being able to connect the dots with the private sector, a lot of it is based on the expertise and the relationships that a lot of these employees have that have served for such a long time at CISA since this committee helped bring it into existence. That's all the more difficult when we have those same employees that we're relying on their expertise and those relationships and, to Ms. McNeill's point, they're having to choose between being able to support their families and continuing to support the mission of securing our nation's infrastructure.

And finally, security at Jewish synagogues.

For the nonprofit security grant program, at this time, we are stalled because the staff that's processing and supposed to work on those grants has been impacted by the third shutdown. And those funds are critical to get out for many of the nonprofit and houses of worship that receive and use those funds for security threats.

Thank you. I yield back.

Gentleman yields back and I let the witnesses go a little over there and I will do that for both sides if they're in the process of answering a question today because I do think it's important for them to talk about what's going on. I now recognize the gentleman from California, Mr. Correa, for five minutes of questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank our witnesses for being here today and let me start off by saying that I agree with Mr. McCaul. We face a clear and present danger in this country today. Let me ask each one of you a question if I may. Simple yes and no. Do you believe we should end this shutdown as quickly as possible? Mr. Allan?

Yes, sir.

Ms. McNeill?

Yes, sir.

Mr. Andersen?

Yes, sir.

Ms. Barton?

Yes, sir.

Apparently President Trump disagrees with you. This is a headline from Monday, New York Times, actually Tuesday. President Trump said on Monday that Republicans should stop negotiating with Democrats to end the partial government shutdown and instead focus on passing his voter legislation. He actually has told Republican senators, stop negotiating with Democrats. We have a disconnect here, wouldn't you say? So do we really want to end this shutdown or not? Tell you we can start out by doing what I just did a few weeks, actually a few years ago, working on this issue of attrition. It was up to 20 percent for TSA workers. What changed that? Better pay, better benefits, because we wanted what we wanted to do was professionalize TSA workers from part-time minimum wage workers to make them what they're supposed to be, which is frontline workers that are watching to make sure nothing gets on a flight that could hurt Americans. Can I ask you another question, Ms. McNeill? What's the status of the collective bargaining rights of TSA workers right now?

The CBA remains in place as the court works through.

But you've tried to take them away and the courts have said hold on, correct?

That is the order of the courts.

Thank you. We're talking about funding. ICE and CBP flush with cash right now. Last July I asked whether DHS reprogrammed any funding from other DHS agencies to ICE. DHS reported that ICE received more than $310 million in transfers from other DHS agencies, including $143 million from CISA and another $32 million from FEMA. Ms. McNeill, have you asked DHS leadership for existing ICE and CBP funds to be reprogrammed to your employees? Cash is sitting there. Don't you think our national security demands that you ask that? Have you asked for that?

I think that the issue at hand here is for the government to be funded.

Have you asked for that reprogramming? Have you asked for that reprogramming, yes or no, ma'am? Have you asked for the reprogramming? That's my answer. Mr. Andersen, the same question. Have you asked leadership to reprogram excess ICE and CBP funding to pay your employees? Simple yes or no.

Sir, we have a tremendous amount of support from...

Thank you very much. Ms. Barton, I'm sorry. Have you asked to have funds reprogrammed? That the answer is no. Look folks, your agencies are on record giving nearly $200 million to ICE for mass deportations. Yet you haven't asked for any of that money back when, like Mr. McCaul said, we have a clear and present danger in this country. Do we or don't we consider TSA employees critical defending our nation? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My time is up. I yield.

Gentleman yields back. Now recognize the gentleman from Mississippi, Mr. Guest, for five minutes of questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 40 days. For 40 days, 22 federal agencies that fall under the umbrella of Department of Homeland Security have not received funding from the federal government. Those 22 agencies employ over 260,000 Americans. Let that sink in. Over a quarter of a million of our federal law enforcement and first responders, many have not received a check in almost now six weeks. What has that resulted in? It's resulted in travel delays. In some cases, travel delays in excess of four hours. It's resulted in loss to the economy. It's estimated that our economy has lost more than $2.5 billion during this shutdown. And it has made America less safe. So to each of you, I want to apologize that Congress has not been able to fund the agencies for which you work, to fund those individuals who work under you. But I must say, I must push back on the narrative that this is a Republican created crisis, that this is the Republicans' fault. Chairman Garbarino said that every Republican on this committee has voted twice to fully fund DHS. And I'll tell you that we will have an opportunity later this week to vote a third time to fund DHS. And I am confident that every member here who has voted previously will vote again to pay the men and women of DHS who place themselves in harm's way to keep us safe. If you remember when the shutdown began, this was going to be a temporary shutdown. Democrats said fund everything but DHS, give us a week, we'll get this worked out. That week has now turned into over 40 days. Democrats said we don't want to fund the agency until there's change in leadership. So President Trump reassigned Secretary Nielsen. Yesterday, just yesterday, Secretary Markwayne Mullin was sworn in. And Republicans have made that change. Democrats also said we refuse to fund DHS unless you separate ICE. You separate ICE out of DHS, we'll fund all the other agencies. We'll fund Coast Guard, we'll fund TSA, we'll fund FEMA, we'll fund CISA. And what did we see yesterday? Yesterday, and this is the Hill headline from today, talking about the events of yesterday. Senate Democrats, not Senate Republicans, Senate Democrats reject GOP offer to reopen DHS. The article goes on to say Senate Democrats on Tuesday rejected a new proposal from Senate Republicans endorsed by President Trump to fund almost all the Department of Homeland Security while setting aside some funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to end the partial government shutdown that has now stretched at that time 39 days, today 40. And so to my Democratic colleagues, I will tell you it is time for you to stop gaslighting the public. It's time for you to stop lying to the American people. It's time for you to stop saying that this is a Republican issue, that we created this, when we have voted time and time again to fund DHS. That we see in the Senate a proposal was made, a good faith proposal to try to honor the request of the Democrats to separate agencies out except ICE. And we have changed leaderships in DHS by having a new secretary sworn in just yesterday. So the Democrats, which are now the policy of abolish ICE, now the party of defunding the police, they are also now today, they are the party of government shutdown. And so in the last minute I have, I have questions that I would like just yes or no answers again. Would like for you to have time to expand, but know that my time is short. Ms. McNeill, have the 60,000 men and women of TSA been paid since the government shutdown began? Yes or no?

They have not.

Mr. Andersen, have the 2,500 employees of CISA been paid since the government shutdown, yes or no?

No, sir.

Ms. Barton, have the 22,000 employees of FEMA been paid since the government shutdown?

No, sir.

Ms. McNeill, has the shutdown impacted your ability to carry out your core mission?

It is getting harder by the day, sir.

Mr. Andersen, same question. Has your mission, has it impacted your ability to carry out your mission?

Yes, sir, absolutely.

And Ms. Barton, same question to you.

I see the impacts every day.

Last question as my time expires. Ms. McNeill, is America more or less safe because of this government shutdown?

We are really concerned about our security posture and what the long-term impacts of the shutdown is going to have on the workforce and our ability to carry out the mission.

Mr. Andersen, is America more or less safe because of the shutdown?

The threat environment is too dynamic, sir, to allow this shutdown to continue on.

And Ms. Barton, are we more or less safe because of this shutdown?

We are crippling our disaster response and recovery abilities by the day.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm sorry for being over time and I yield back.

Gentleman yields back. I just want to, Ms. Barton, I just want you to clarify your answer about the employees not getting paid to make sure you have the right thing on the record because I know some FEMA employees have been... Can you just confirm which employees are not being paid right now?

The employees who are not funded out of the disaster relief fund are not being paid. Some are furloughed and some are going to work while not being paid.

Okay, so the employees not getting paid by the DRF. Thank you very much for clarifying.

Yes, Chairman. Thank you for that opportunity.

I would like to now recognize the gentleman from Michigan, Mr. Thanedar, for five minutes of questions.

Thank you, Chairman. Acting Administrator McNeill, I previously told you in a hearing that I represent Detroit Metro Airport, Michigan's busiest airport and one of the largest airline hubs in the world. Due to DHS shutdown, Transportation Security Officers have continued to go without pay. Every time I go through the airport, I have a conversation with them, I see the hardship and uncertainty that they are facing. It is the committee's understanding that DHS is utilizing a $10 billion slush fund from Republicans' big ugly bill to pay some personnel during the shutdown. DHS has decided to pay law enforcement personnel from this fund, but the text does not authorize the use of funds. Nor does it mention limiting payments to law enforcement personnel. Specifically, the text says there are appropriated to the Secretary $10 billion for reimbursement of costs incurred in undertaking activities in support of the Department of Homeland Security's mission to safeguard the borders of the United States. That's all it says. And there is nothing about paying the salaries of law enforcement personnel but not those of other personnel. My question to you is, if DHS believes it can use this slush fund to pay Federal Air Marshals, for example, then why can it not use this fund to pay TSOs? And how is DHS choosing who gets to pay their bills during this shutdown?

Thank you, Congressman, for that question, and to amend my response from earlier, you are correct that some of our law enforcement personnel are getting paid at this point in time, and that is a decision that the department is making on who and what they can fund. We are doing what we can where we can. We do not like being in this situation, and the bottom line is that all the hardworking men and women of DHS need to be paid, and this is why DHS needs to be funded today.

Ms. McNeill, the Trump administration has continued to take away TSOs' collective bargaining agreements. And it continues to try to cancel TSOs' union contracts. With a workforce facing low morale due to no pay and other factors, the Trump administration is doing everything it can to lower workforce morale even further. Even as it pretends to prop up this workforce for political points. Do you think canceling the collective bargaining agreement and union rights at TSA is a good idea during this shutdown?

I think that not paying employees for the work that they are doing every day to keep the American traveling population safe is a bad idea. I think that they need to be paid for the work that they are doing, and half of the time this fiscal year they have not been paid. We are missing close to a billion dollars in payment to the TSOs, and that needs to be rectified today.

How does TSA plan to rebuild its TSO workforce when the administration keeps attacking it and now telling TSOs that untrained ICE agents can do a better job than they can?

I'm extremely thankful to the President for recognizing the crisis that we are in and leveraging assets across the Department of Homeland Security to assist our agency in this very difficult time. And the ICE agents that have shown up are there in the support of the TSA mission, and we've been spending time training them the last few days, and we're seeing relief, signs of early relief at the airports where we're seeing long lines, and this is how we function as a department. We collaborate across the component agencies, and this just underscores the importance of funding the entirety of the DHS functions.

Well, the ICE agents haven't been trained to do their ICE work, and now I don't know what kind of training you're giving them in this short time, but I see them all sitting down, looking at their phones or chitchatting, but looks like they have no role to play.

That's, I've been talking to my field leadership, the ICE agents that are there are doing non-specialized screening functions. It's been incredibly helpful to alleviate the burden on our workforce, and we're getting positive feedback from passengers and our field leadership alike.

Okay, my time is up, so I yield back.

Gentleman yields back. I now recognize the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Gimenez, for five minutes of questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I want to remind everybody just why we're here. We have passed a, we have passed a appropriation for DHS twice, I believe, in the House through Republican votes. We've sent it over to the Senate, and the only reason it hasn't passed is because the Democrats will not give us the 60 votes needed for closure. Period. That's it. And why? Why? Because the Democrats are kowtowing to their radical base. They just want to shut down ICE. And then, you know, that's it. And there's no off-ramp for this, by the way. They had an off-ramp. The off-ramp was when the President changed the head of DHS and put a new head of DHS. That was the perfect time for the off-ramp for this thing to be over, but they chose not to do that because they have radical ideas. They want ICE to be able only to arrest people at the border. Well, there's about 700,000 criminal illegal aliens right now in this country that need to be arrested and need to be deported. And so ICE has a lot of work to do, and they need to do it in order to protect America and the American public. That being said, Ms. McNeill, you mentioned that the upcoming FIFA World Cup is just months away, and it is just months away, and we're expecting millions and millions of people to come to the United States, and that TSA is already facing staffing shortages due to this prolonged shutdown. Given the attrition, the increased call-out rates, and the time it takes to train new officers, can you walk us through how a continued funding lapse would impact TSA's ability to effectively screen the surge of international and domestic travelers during an event that has that magnitude, and what specific risks that might pose to the American public?

Thank you, Congressman. As the shutdown drags on, we will likely see our attrition rates continue to spike, which means that we may not have the adequate head count to staff the airports that are supporting the FIFA locations adequately. We are working to ensure that we are surging our national deployment force so that we have mobile teams to be able to cover down on these locations and looking at our canine assets as well. But at a certain point, this is a numbers game. If you don't have enough head count, you can't cover down on your operations. And the ongoing shutdown is also impacting our ability to procure and deploy technology, from checkpoint technology to some of our counter-UAS technology in advance of FIFA World Cup. So we're really running short on time here.

How many visitors do you expect come to the United States for FIFA?

We are estimating it's a wide-ranging number between six million and from what I've heard up to 10 million additional passengers on top of summer travel volumes already.

Well, those six to 10 million passengers, is that the net number or because they'll be traveling from city to city, so are you going to be multiplying those six two, three times or is that six, 10 million total?

So those are additional passengers, and your point is very well taken, Congressman. I mean, they will be moving around the country as they go through their matches, and so right now we are also doing that planning to ensure that as teams go through the World Cup and they move from base camps to base camps, we will see those surges in those airports as well.

Fair enough. Admiral, I'm deeply concerned about the impact that this is having on the workforce, especially the furlough of roughly 75 percent of your civilian specialists and the financial strain on service members. Given that recruitment and retention was already a challenge, how much long-term damage is being done to the Coast Guard's talent pipeline?

Sir, thank you for that question. When you look at the Coast Guard, this is a profession, this isn't a job. This is bringing in people for long-term to not only better our nation but to provide a pivot in their life to provide things back. Right now our attrition numbers are good, but they're looking at the other services who are being paid and know that they're going to be paid, and we have the uncertainty of whether they're going to get paid paycheck to paycheck, and that is having a long-term uncertainty and readiness impact on our people.

Thank you, Admiral. Look, what's happening is not right. It's just not right. And for to drive a political point that really they can't drive because ICE is already funded. So that's why there's no off-ramp. ICE is already funded. What they want, they can't get. And so this is just political theater, and it's not right, and it's not right that the hardworking men and women that are protecting this country are suffering because of this pure political play. And unfortunately, and I it's this lays right at the feet of the Democrats. They're the ones that refuse to fund DHS and the hardworking men and women that protect this country. And with that, I yield back.

Gentleman yields back. I now recognize the gentleman from Rhode Island, Mr. Magaziner, for five minutes of questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to remind everyone why we are here. Please play the video. [Video plays.] This is why we're here. Because under the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security has been badly mismanaged. Complete chaos. Children, pregnant women, veterans, U.S. citizens locked up and deported for no good reason. Two Americans murdered in the street in broad daylight. The workforce at CISA was gutted, FEMA funding wasn't going out to North Carolina and other parts of the country that needed it, and then there was abject corruption. Corey Lewandowski handing out taxpayer-funded contracts while allegedly demanding that he be paid success fees from those companies. Tom Homan taking $50,000 in cash in a paper bag from FBI agents. The American people are appalled and outraged by what is going on. And now the administration wants us to give them billions of more dollars with no guarantee that anything is going to change. Firing Kristi Noem is a good start, but it is not enough. ICE needs to act like every other law enforcement agency. With warrants, with badge numbers, with standards of conduct, and with accountability when those standards are broken, and we need laws to ensure that will happen because otherwise it's not going to happen. Rosa DeLauro has a bill right now to fund the rest of the Department of Homeland Security except for ICE. To fund TSA, FEMA, the Coast Guard, all of it. And we can continue to negotiate the much-needed changes to ICE in the meantime. Let's pass that funding now. For those TSA workers, for those Coast Guard workers and contractors, today. We could vote on this today and pass that funding. In fact, it was reported that there was a deal to do just that and President Trump rejected it. He said don't do a deal with Democrats. And then it was reported Leader Thune went to the White House, actually talked some sense into the President, they agreed to it, and almost immediately the House Freedom Caucus on the far right came out against it. Enough. Let's fund TSA now, let's fund the Coast Guard now, let's pass this DeLauro bill, and we can negotiate over the much-needed changes to ICE that the American people want and demand. But what we are not going to do is to continue to throw billions of dollars at ICE when there is no accountability, when they're pulling people from their homes without a warrant, harassing people, intimidating people who are exercising free speech, employing mass surveillance against United States citizens, killing United States citizens. We are not going to do that. We can fund the rest of Homeland Security today and make much-needed reforms to ICE that the American people want and deserve. That is why we are in this situation. I yield back.

Gentleman yields back. I now recognize the gentleman from Texas.

Gentleman yields back. I now recognize the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Pfluger, for five minutes of questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The reason we're here, despite a video with two people being shown on it, is not that. The reason we're here is because we didn't have a single hearing on border security while the ranking member was the chairman in 2021 and 2022. Not a single hearing. And yet 10 million people were let in under President Joe Biden. Where were the cries when Jocelyn Nungaray was murdered? Where were the video cameras when Laken Riley was brutally murdered? We don't have those. They didn't get that. That's why we're here. We're here because we're cleaning up a mess that is on a level and a scale that is unfathomable. President Trump has had to clean up a mess that is on a scale that was unthinkable. 100,000 people died as a result of fentanyl. Where were my Democrat colleagues down in McAllen, Texas, when I went down there and saw a two-year-old that was left in the brush? Yeah. The emotional outcry over here is the height of hypocrisy. It is so hypocritical. Not a single person down there at a hearing that we held on border security. Not a single Democrat had the decency to stand up for Laken Riley's parents at the State of the Union last year. Not a single person on the Democrat side of the aisle to stand up for Jocelyn Nungaray's parents who were in our chamber. Give me a break. We have a bipartisan agreed-upon bill to fund all of DHS that was voted upon and then the carpet was pulled out by Senate Democrats. And now this week we will vote for the third time to fund the entirety of DHS. You want to know why people are leaving blue cities and blue states is because they don't believe in the rule of law. They don't believe in law and order. They don't believe in adhering to the laws that are on the books. Well we do. And we believe in helping because we were there, even despite President Biden's complete wide-open border and agenda to let millions of people into this country, we funded you. I wonder what our panelists would would like to ask this side of the aisle for their no vote. I wonder what they'd like to say knowing that there are agents right now who are struggling just to make a mortgage payment or to put food on the table. That there are TSA agents in their hometowns. I'd like to see the White House maybe take a move to say if you vote no for DHS funding, you don't get the funding in your district. You don't get the funding in your state. I'd like to see that. Ms. McNeill, are there continued worries right now about terrorist threats on airplanes?

Congressman, as we know, the aviation sector has always been a target of interest for terrorists that has been, you know, since the days of 9/11 and continues to be so. And so our vigilance is really critical and especially during this heightened threat environment, every day we look at our risk posture and we amend our operations to make sure that we are putting the strongest security barriers up as possible. And we continue to do that despite not being funded for the third time this year and our officers continue to show up and continue to do what they need to do every day to ensure the safety of the American travelers.

What do you tell your agents right now? Hang in there, sorry you're not getting paid. Sorry that we have a dysfunctional Congress that can't actually come to some reasonable conclusion that there is a terrorist threat that we would like to prevent in the wake of 9/11. What do you tell them?

I thank them every day for their commitment and dedication to the mission because they continue to show up. You wouldn't see this level of commitment, you know, in the private sector. I mean this is incredible what you're seeing from the men and women at TSA today. We tell them that they are performing a critical function. We ask them to continue to show up and let them know that we're advocating for them with the powers that be and that's why I'm here today is to advocate for the funding of the Department of Homeland Security so that the hardworking men and women get their paychecks.

I wonder what my colleagues on the other side of the aisle do when they cross over into TSA and what do they say, you know, to the agents? Do they say sorry I didn't vote for your for you to get paid, but keep us safe, you know? It's rhetorical, but please I'll give you the last five seconds.

Congresswoman, ICE our ICE colleagues have helped us in some of the non-specialized screening functions at airports so that we can focus our TSA workforce on those specialized screening efforts and they are helping us at airports where we have where we are seeing long lines because those TSOs have not been able to report to work because they cannot afford to do so. Thank you, Congressman. I mean what I'm hearing from our workforce is that what's happening to them is nothing short of cruel. And how do you respond to that? You know, it is it's just a really tough situation.

There's no response, especially when we're leaving at risk a terrorist threat that is going to that is loud and clear that there are people out there that want to destroy this country and now they're going to use this division with folks who don't have the courage to stand up and do the right thing and I yield back.

Gentleman yields back. I now recognize the gentlelady from Illinois, Ms. Ramirez, for five minutes of questions.

Thank you, Chairman and Ranking Member. I want you to look at this board here. It says that the Transportation Security Administration, TSA, be privatized. Right there, Project 2025. Until it is privatized, TSA should be treated as a national security provider and its workforce should be de-unionized immediately. This is the recommendation of the Heritage Foundation in chapter five, page 134 of their mandate for leadership, better known as Project 2025. Mr. Chair, I know some of my colleagues would like to say that there's no correlation between the administration and the Heritage Foundation's plan. But Acting Administrator McNeill, didn't DHS announce on March 7, 2025, that DHS was ending collective bargaining for TSA officers, yes or no?

Yes, it did.

Thank you. That's right. So when you're acting here like you give a darn about our TSA officers, stop with the hypocrisy. Mr. Chairman, I want to make sure that I ask unanimous consent to include into the record a press release by DHS entitled, DHS Ends Collective Bargaining for TSA's Transportation Security Officers.

Without objection.

Now, it's hard to believe that the Republicans' reluctance to fund TSA, despite 10 attempts by Democrats in the Senate, is not acting on the Heritage Foundation and Trump's administration's playbook to hurt workers and create conditions to privatize TSA. Because Republicans blocked DHS funding 10 times. Take a picture. It'll last longer so you can see it. Especially when Trump himself has demanded that Republicans reject funding the TSA, FEMA, Coast Guard, and CISA, all while his terror force, ICE and CBP, are beyond fully funded with 50,000 bonus sign-up contracts. Because instead of negotiating with Democrats to rein in ICE and CBP and ensure that workers in TSA, FEMA, CISA, and the Coast Guard receive their paychecks, they want to make sure to slap TSA workers in the face and send ICE agents who aren't getting paid to intimidate travelers, stand idly behind unpaid TSA workers who are actually doing the work and inflict harm in our airports. As the administration consistently demonstrates, one, there is no plan. Two, ICE has become a national paramilitary force intended to be accountable only to who? The president, not the people, which he feels he can deploy at his will with or without masks depending on how he's feeling that day. So Acting Administrator McNeill, given we see photos of ICE agents loitering at airports, what exactly is ICE's role at TSA checkpoints? What task are they performing that usually TSOs would be performing? They cannot afford, okay, well thank you. That's enough. That's enough. Let me reclaim my time. They they can't afford to because we won't fund them, but we will certainly ask for more money for ICE. I just I want to make sure for the record because we are limited on time, a couple questions that actually TSA agents and people back in our districts are asking is, how are ICE agents reducing passenger wait times at the airport because passenger wait times have not reduced, as a matter of fact in some airports have increased as a result of now the terror of having ICE agents all over the place. I also want to make sure that we put on the record what training have ICE officers received for these roles? It's my understanding they have no training for these specific roles and that TSOs are not sworn law enforcement officers, so does any of the work that ICE is performing require a sworn law enforcement officer? I want to make sure that I end and say this. DHS as it stands can't be reformed. It was created by Congress with a broad latitude to violate our rights under the pretense of security, but frankly in this moment, no one feels secure under DHS. With this latitude, TSA gathers and analyzes the data of billions of travelers, including biometrics. And not long ago, the administration and this committee irresponsibly defended private interests having access to our information. And I want to make sure that I make this clear. What they are doing with your information should scare you. There are corporations that have your information because TSA leadership is releasing that information under the guise of protecting us against domestic terrorism. This is exactly why not one more dollar for ICE, not one more dollar for CBP, and we have to fund TSA, but not at the expense of giving more money for corruption. With that, I yield back.

The gentlelady yields back. I now recognize the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Luttrell, for five minutes of questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Admiral Allan, thank you for your service, sir. Can you give me the role and responsibility of a merchant marine captain for the American public, please?

Sir, the merchant marine is our force that provides the ability for us to move goods and services as a maritime nation. In times of war, they will actually provide the ability to move supplies and forces forward.

So I am assuming that that will scuttle economic growth if we lose our merchant marine captains.

Sir, could you say that again?

I said if we are losing our merchant marine captains because of a turnover rate which you said 16,000, I believe.

Yes, sir. So we have what we are doing is new credentials are coming in. They either have to renew them or are new ones, and that is 16,000 that we are backlogged right now with 300 coming in a day.

Because I have a dear friend that reached out to me, he is a merchant marine captain and he is up for his license is up for renewal and his concern was like I cannot do this because DHS is shut down. My question about merchant marines is if there is enough if there is a large enough delta where we are not paying our captains, they are going to have to go somewhere else to find work first and foremost, but then the new recruits are not going to come in because they are going to see what is happening. If we lose our merchant marine fleet, I am assuming that is going to be a bad thing.

Yes, sir.

As far as the Coast Guard, now I was in Kerrville as well. And the flight crew that was out there conducted amazing operations and rescued over 230 people. And your rescue swimmers do amazing things off of each of our coasts. And they put themselves in positions that most likely sometimes when they jump in the water they know they are not coming back. And I am assuming our rescue swimmers are continuing to do their job, correct?

Yes, sir, we continue to do national security missions and those missions affecting life and property, and so we do have our rescue swimmers out there every day responding.

And that is a global footprint too, correct, not just off our coasts?

That is correct.

And that lends itself to national security, correct?

Yes, sir.

And Mr. Andersen, as far as CISA goes, at what point if we do not have the ability to pay our employees and they start to leave, just as well as turnover, at what point will CISA be combat ineffective?

Thank you for your question, sir. It is a continued risk that is evolving each and every single day. We have employees that are having to make the choice right now. We have employees that are single, we have a woman who is a single mother who is having to make the choice right now between continuing to care for her aging parents or continuing to care for her child and be able to pay her bills. That type of calculus for individual employees, they should not have to make that type of burdensome choice between serving their nation and continuing to serve their families.

And Ms. McNeill, as far as the attrition rate goes with our current officers in TSA, I am sure I am assuming the growth rate is starting to grow the longer we are into this shutdown, correct?

Yes, the attrition is, you know, we are watching that closely and throughout the three shutdowns of this year we did see spikes in attrition. So we need to be very careful about that because, as I mentioned earlier, we are months away from FIFA and we need to be in a ready posture to be able to support the events of the summer.

So we have the United States Coast Guard and Merchant Marine Academy that provides security and supply infrastructure around our coasts. We have CISA that protects all of our communication and all of our digital infrastructure, banking across the board. And then we have TSA that allows people to move through in and out of our country and we have FIFA coming up and we have 10 million plus people as you said that are planning on coming in. That is going to send our if we are still in shutdown I would assume that that will send our aviation community into complete lockdown. Which means everybody that is paying including the teams coming over to do this will not have the ability to travel because the airports are non-functional. Is that a fair assessment?

Congressman, at this point we have to look at all options on the table. We do not have the luxury of picking and choosing how we maintain our operations and that does require us to at some point make very difficult choices as to which airports we might try to keep open and which ones we might have to shut down as our call-out rates increase.

So the way that I see this is that a secretary has been removed, Senator Markwayne Mullin got appointed yesterday making valid attempts to course correct the irritations with ICE and everything that has been happening, but we have crippled Coast Guard, CISA, and our TSA agents and we are continuing to do so. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.

The gentleman yields back. I now recognize the gentleman from New York, Mr. Goldman, for five minutes of questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ms. McNeill, would you rather have a fully funded TSA or ICE agents assisting TSA at airports during a shutdown?

I would like to have all the hardworking men and women of the Department of Homeland Security be paid for the work that they are doing.

That was not my question. Would you rather have your agency fully funded so everyone can be paid and retroactively, or would you rather have ICE officers assisting you at airports?

If DHS is funded, TSA will be funded.

And would you rather have that or would you rather have the ICE agents who are at airports right now helping you?

I think that if we do not want ICE agents working at airports...

Just can you just answer the question? It is not a complicated question, ma'am, it is not a complicated question. Would you rather have TSA funded or ICE agents helping your agency at the airport?

Paying the employees for the work that they are doing is also not a complicated question.

But I am asking the questions and you are answering them, and I would like to understand whether you are happy to have ICE agents there or whether you would rather have your own TSA officers there.

Under normal order, they would be performing TSA would be performing our operations and that is the ideal state. But I am also thankful for ICE for being there to help alleviate the burden that our workforce is feeling because we are in the third shutdown of this fiscal year.

So you are happy to have ICE there, even though as far as we can tell there are videos of them standing around yawning, eating candy bars, or tackling someone in the and arresting a woman in front of her daughter in the San Francisco airport. It seems to me like there is not a whole lot they are doing, but one thing that Mr. Homan said they were doing was checking identification. So do you have any concerns about passengers whose identification are being checked by ICE agents who are armed and may arrest them?

The ICE agents that are at the airports where we are seeing long lines are helping in a multiple multitude of different ways. The credential authentication machine at the travel document checker is one thing that they are helping us operate and they are doing that under TSA protocols and standard operating procedures.

So let us talk about these this funding because I hear my colleagues on the other side of the aisle wax poetic and melodramatic about how awful it is that your officers are not funded are not able to work and get paid. And I want to be very clear, I 100 percent agree with that. The problem is that it is the Republicans who have voted down TSA funding over and over and over again. And you do not have to take my word for it. Let us listen to Senator Kennedy on Fox News if we could play the clip. [Video plays.] No deals with the Democrats. The Democrats offered to open up everything but ICE, but Trump said no, no deals with the Democrats. That is a Republican senator. And that is why we are sitting here today with none of your agencies being funded. And I am sorry that you have to deal with this. I am sorry you are having to get by with no funding, with people having to literally leave their job so they can take another job and get paid. That is absolutely unacceptable and you are right to be frustrated and I am concerned about our homeland security, I am concerned about CISA, I am concerned about the damage it is causing. And that is why you ought to call your boss President Trump and tell him to take the offer that the Democrats made to fund all of your agencies. And I yield back.

The gentleman yields back. I now recognize the gentleman from Oklahoma, Mr. Brecheen, for five minutes of questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to look up the word obfuscate because I have been watching it play out all morning. The verb meaning to make something unclear, obscure, or difficult to understand, to conceal the truth in is frequently used in the context of communication or politics, to confuse, to cloud, to blur, to befuddle, to complicate, to mystify. I think many people remember the scene in the Wizard of Oz where the dog is pulling back the curtain and the man with the booming voice says disregard the man behind the curtain pulling the levers and spinning the wheels. But everyone knew. It is almost like someone who pulls a fire alarm and then blames everybody else for the noise. Or the little kid that is caught with cookie crumbs on their face and says no it was not me. I do not know how if a terrorist activity occurs that you can wordsmith your way out of this in a few months. I would like to know how you can wordsmith your way out of this because that is the reality. As Ms. McNeill representing the TSA agents as you have described there has been 40 days a lapse of funding. Brilliantly the president has had to move for security national security concerns ICE agents to do the non-technical elements of screening because as you said it takes six months for some of these screening elements to be fully understood to keep the American people safe at our airports. 40 days of no funding. 400 people have quit their jobs within TSA is my understanding. It takes six months to replace them. Within 79 days we are going to have the World Cup. This conflict with Iran and Iran absolutely is looking for vulnerabilities. Ms. McNeill, is our national security at risk?

Um, we are really concerned about the impacts of all of this on our security posture and our ability to maintain. I think the fact that we are able to maintain the way that we are today really speaks to the dedication of the workforce, but, you know, if this goes on much longer it will have dire long-term impacts.

So for the leverage points of those that are trying to make a point on some other issue, will they have had plenty of warning signs if a terrorist activity was to occur? If another drug interdiction to the Coast Guard gets through, someone dies from fentanyl poisoning. If there is a hacking situation and we lose our grid or we ransomware and and massive vulnerabilities. Or in Oklahoma if we have a tornado and our disaster relief fund stash of allocation is completely empty. Will they be able to move the green pea around enough and wave their hand enough to say oh we didn't have enough notice, it wasn't our fault? Admiral Allan, how could you justify maintaining a position of keeping your officers underfunded where they are having to go to banks to keep them afloat, keeping their eye off the target to protect the people? Can they say they didn't know?

Sir, our people are hired to secure the Constitution and pledge that oath. With that oath the American people have given them a contract to pay them and make sure that they're going to be able to show up to work every day. Every day that this goes on it's harder to do that. We have uncertainty in whether they're going to get paid and that creates problems with readiness and that problem with readiness creates problems with execution of dangerous missions.

Ms. McNeill, for the TSA agents, given the attrition, given those that are leaving their jobs, you said 40 percent of people are calling in now saying I just can't do this in some areas. Forty percent saying I cannot do this, I have to go make a living for my family, I have to get a paycheck. And so that void is having to be filled. What happens months down the road because of the six-month training requirement to get us up to speed? How many months will we be in a very vulnerable situation even if the shutdown was to end today?

As I mentioned in my opening statement, at this rate and at this point in time, we wouldn't be able to train those officers and put them in place in time for the FIFA World Cup. So we're facing it come this summer.

I yield, Mr. Chairman.

Gentleman yields back. I now recognize gentleman from New York, Mr. Kennedy, for five minutes of questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A number of our colleagues have mentioned why we're here today. I want to remind my colleagues of three of many individuals who have brought us here today to this point. Alex Preti, Renee Nicole Good, Nurul Amin Shah Alam. They are why we are here today. There needs to be accountability at ICE. There needs to be reforms, and we need to create trust in our government agencies once and for all. I want to be crystal clear with our witnesses today that Democrats want to see each of your agencies fully funded. As a matter of fact, aside from the deal that was rejected by President Trump and ultimately Senate Republicans who are doing his bidding, Democrats have put forward a House plan, a petition on the floor that not only have I and hundreds of my colleagues already signed that forces a vote to fund all of your agencies in full. I've signed that discharge petition, I co-sponsor that bill, and we need to make sure that our TSOs are being paid and all of these agencies are fully funded once and for all. But I want to turn to FEMA issues because this is the first time the committee has seen a FEMA witness this Congress. I understand we were supposed to have the head of FEMA's Office of Response and Recovery, Mr. Greg Phillips, to testify here today. I'm really disappointed that he's not here. I do appreciate you being here, Ms. Barton. I wanted to ask Mr. Phillips, along with my colleagues, about his election conspiracy theories, about his violent statements about former President Biden, or his deeply troubling bigoted comments about immigrants, all of which to me makes him wholly disqualified to hold his position on its own, but all only to be outdone by his claims of being teleported to a Waffle House. It sounds to me that Mr. Phillips is wildly unfit for his role as head of FEMA Response and Recovery, and I look forward to seeing him here before this committee in person. And so, Ms. Barton, while a shutdown in many ways can put FEMA in a bind, FEMA's not been effectively up and running since this president was inaugurated on January 20th of last year. In February, Mr. Phillips testified before the House Appropriations Committee the following, quote, "A lapse in appropriations would result in the furlough of many FEMA employees, limiting the agency's ability to coordinate effectively and affecting disaster relief outcomes." Ms. Barton, your testimony today largely made the same argument that letting go of FEMA staff ties the agency's hands. How many employees does FEMA have at this moment?

Hi, Mr. Congressman. We have, if you count the core staff, which is part of our team funded through the Disaster Relief Fund, it's about 10,000 people, and it gets to about 20,000 people is our full accounted for staff.

I'd like a specific number. I've heard 17,500 from you earlier today. I've heard one of my colleagues say 22,000. We need a number, especially given the fact that 2,000 personnel have left since last year. How many staff have been fired from FEMA or have left the agency?

Yes, Congressman, I can follow up with your team and get you those numbers.

And is your agency still moving forward with plans to cut the FEMA workforce in half?

I'm not familiar with any current guidance as far as cutting the workforce by any sort of percentage. I do know that we have a new secretary who has been confirmed and sworn in, and we're looking forward to working with him on this.

So it was reported in December of this past year that there were plans to cut the FEMA workforce in half. It's also been reported that the Trump administration has called for an entire FEMA disestablishment. The fact that FEMA should be totally done away with, which I absolutely disagree with, and I believe the American people disagree with as well, especially the states who are most impacted by catastrophic storms. Would you generally agree, yes or no, that having fewer employees to respond to disasters means a weaker federal response?

The men and women of FEMA that I work with every day have been unwavering. We're over 70 days when you combine all the lapse days together. It's been extremely impactful and it's not sustainable. We are days away from hurricane season starting. Just this weekend we had flash flooding in Hawaii. We have tornadoes happening. We have fires raging. This is a 24/7 operation and this is really impacting our folks, and that's what I can tell you today.

Mr. Chairman, I'm out of time, but if I could just consent to submit into the record a GAO report titled "FEMA Staffing Shortages Can Mean Disaster for Future Response Efforts."

Without objection.

I yield back. Thank you.

Gentleman yields back. I now recognize the gentleman from Arizona, Mr. Crane, for five minutes of questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Wow, this hearing has been amazing. I mean, this is even epic for Washington standards, the amount of gaslighting and lies that have been told in this hearing today. Mr. Chairman, I got a question for you. Mr. Chairman, real quick, got a question for you.

Yes, sir.

I got to ask you this because I'm all the way down the bench from you and I know my hearing's not so good, but I believe at the beginning of this hearing, the ranking member, Mr. Bennie Thompson, said that this is a Republican shutdown. Did he say that, sir?

I don't recall if he said it, but other people have.

Yeah, he did say that. And it's just interesting to me because on January 22nd of this year, all Republicans on this committee voted to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Mr. Chairman, are you aware of any Democrat on this committee that voted to fund the Department of Homeland Security on January 22nd?

I am not.

Not me neither. Then again, on March 5th, Mr. Chairman, of 2026, we again voted to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Are you aware of that, Mr. Chairman?

Yes.

Are you aware of any Democrat that's sitting on this dais today that voted to fund the Department of Homeland Security?

I am not.

Yeah, we continue to hear that this is a government shutdown by the Republicans. I also want to ask the witnesses here today, did you guys hear the ranking member say that? Ms. McNeill, did you hear? Yes or no?

I believe so.

Yeah, you did. Because that's what he said. And this is what happens in Washington. It's not really about truth or facts, it's about narrative and who can get their narrative out. I just want to make sure you guys are tracking along with this hearing and you guys aren't boondoggled or deceived by the Democrat Party here who's trying to act like this is a government shutdown. Mr. Correa, my friend and colleague on the other side, he actually said no, it's TSA's fault, it's CISA's fault, it's FEMA's fault because you guys haven't asked for reprogramming or rearrangement of funds. Did you hear him say that, Ms. McNeill? You haven't asked for rearrangement of funds, right?

I did hear him say that.

What about you, Mr. Andersen? Did you hear that too?

Yes, sir.

Did you know it wasn't your fault that your employees aren't getting paid because you haven't asked for the rearrangement of federal funds?

I was unaware of that fact, sir.

What about you, Ms. Barton? Were you aware of that?

I was also unaware.

What would that make you guys think when you heard my friend, Mr. Correa, say that it's your fault because you haven't asked for the rearrangement of federal funds? It's not them, it's not that they keep voting against the Department of Homeland Security, it's actually your fault. You know, again, I had my staff check into this just to make sure. Not one single Democrat in this committee voted to fund the Department of Homeland Security. My colleague, Mr. Goldman, he said Republicans have voted not to fund TSA multiple times. Did you guys hear that? Admiral, did you hear that?

Yes, sir.

What'd you think of that, Admiral? I mean, you're probably tracking this, your people aren't getting paid, is that correct?

Our people are not getting paid, our civilians are at least three paychecks without pay. Yes, sir.

Are you able to see through this, sir? I mean, you're speaking on behalf of your folks that aren't getting paid. Are you able to see through that?

Sir, we continue to support our people who...

I know that. That's not what I'm asking you. I'm asking you because a lot of the American people seem to be falling for this massive gaslighting campaign that this is a Republican shutdown. Are you aware of what's going on, sir?

We are tracking this day by day, yes, sir.

Thank you. I want to show a video real quick. [Video plays.] This is what we're dealing with right now. Not a great time to have the Department of Homeland Security, whose job it is to protect American citizens, be shut down. And these are some of the Democrat quotes right here. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, "We shouldn't shut the government down over disputes." He said that in 2018. Senator Mark Kelly in 2023, "A government shutdown would have serious impacts. Airports could have major delays. We can't let any of that happen." I want to close with this. I want to thank Ms. Barton and Mr. Phillips for coming to my district to try and help a forgotten city, Globe, and my Miami dealing with disaster relief. Thank you guys for coming out. They feel all the time like they get forgotten constantly, so thank you for trying to help folks in my district recover from the flooding that we've had. I yield back.

Gentleman yields back, and we're going to take a brief 10-minute recess for a restroom break, including one for myself. So thank you. We'll be back in 10 minutes, quicker if everybody moves. All right, thank you. Welcome back. I now recognize gentlelady from New Jersey, Ms. McIver, for five minutes of questions.

Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member. I want to truly begin by recognizing and thanking the dedicated people who protect our airways, ports, and waterways, critical cyber infrastructure, and support our emergency preparedness systems across this country. Many of whom have been forced to work without pay, which has been discussed over and over today in this committee. You do not deserve this if you are tuned in or in this chamber today, you deserve better. You already had to deal with a month and a half without pay last year because Republicans refused to support affordable healthcare. Now it's been over a month without pay again because once again Republicans refuse to rein in ICE's cruelty. We're here, just to be clear, about ICE's cruelty that we've all had the opportunity, no matter what side of the aisle you're on, see play out in broad daylight in front of us all when they killed American citizens right before our eyes. This hits close to home for me because my district, New Jersey's 10th Congressional District, is home to one of the largest airports in the country, Newark Liberty Airport. I have heard personal stories of TSA workers having to skip meals or take their kids out of daycare. These are the real world consequences of Republicans' agenda. On top of that, ICE is now stationed in Newark Liberty Airport, adding stress, fear, and government waste to an already chaotic situation. And on top of that, chilling and drinking coffee. Acting Administrator McNeill, you mentioned earlier in one of your testimonies that ICE was helping TSA agents operate the CAT machine, which basically for those who do not know, validates IDs at TSA checkpoints. ICE does not have the specialized skills or training with that technology. Most of them only have 41 days of training that we heard in the last hearing of training to be an ICE agent. So let alone they surely do not have training on this specialized technology. How are they helping operate this machine, this technology? How is that possible?

Congresswoman, we do have training for the operation of the travel document checker and during the last 43-day shutdown, we also had to train additional employees to operate the TDC, including airport staff and others that volunteered to help us during that extended shutdown. And this time around, we're doing the same thing with the ICE agents.

So the ICE agents who got here to the airport this week, you offered them training on the CAT machine already?

We have spent several days doing training on multiple different functions, non-screening.

Several days, today is Wednesday. So when would they be getting several training? Was it this week or last week?

It was this week.

Okay, so they started getting training on Monday?

Correct.

And you talked about like your training and everything that goes into TSA, being a TSA agent that takes six months. You're telling me that you were able within 72 hours to train ICE agents how to operate the CAT technology system?

The travel document checker function is one of the non-specialized screening functions of TSA. And so where others can come in, we can train them to conduct this function while we focus our TSO workforce on some of the more highly skilled screening procedures, security screening procedures at the checkpoint.

Can you run through again what ICE is doing at these airports? Because at my airport I've spoken to them, I had multiple calls with each of them and basically ICE is standing in the lobby area, not operating these machines like you said. I don't know if this happened at every other airport because I only could speak to Newark Liberty Airport, but they're not doing anything other than being accompanied with the Port Authority police officer and standing in the lobby. So I mean what are they doing? Like what's the list of duties that you are allowing ICE agents basically to do when it comes to TSA screenings?

Yeah, so they're helping us on several different functions including queue management, helping us with exit lane staffing, divesting, giving passengers instructions on how to load up their bins and all of that. And then helping operate the travel document checker as well. And all of these require certain levels of training and we've done that over the first few days of this week. And obviously, you know, when we roll out operations it takes a while to really get folks, you know, embedded into our operations and it's gone extremely well and our feedback from the passengers and our field leadership has been very positive.

Well, I wish I could say the same thing for Newark Liberty Airport. That's not the case there. Folks are really annoyed, you know, just seeing them standing around because once again I'm telling you critical information, factual information that they're not doing any of that that you just ran down at Newark Liberty Airport. So obviously there's some disconnect in what is going on and what is happening. I just want to point out Chairman, I'm not sure what's wrong with the clock, but it definitely hasn't been five minutes. Not unless I'm just crazy, it's been a long hearing, but I'm down to three seconds and that seems like that went really quickly. I will end with one thing. Acting Administrator McNeill, do you believe that, do you support a bill just to fund TSA at this moment in time?

I support the funding for the Department of Homeland Security which includes TSA. But as I mentioned earlier, we don't function in a silo at the Department of Homeland Security.

I mean your responsibility is TSA though. So are you representing TSA or Homeland Security? Which one do you represent? Homeland Security or TSA?

We are one team, one mission at DHS.

Oh, that's unfortunate and I hope TSA members are seeing this because your main function and responsibility should be of TSA and protecting them and making sure that they get paid. With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back. Thank you.

Gentlelady yields back. I now recognize the gentlelady from South Carolina, Ms. Biggs, for five minutes of questions.

Thank you, Chairman Garbarino, for holding this hearing on the Democrat shutdown of DHS. And I would like to thank these witnesses for taking time out of their busy schedules to be here with us today. We appreciate the work that you do to keep our nation safe, even when the job is difficult. Over 260,000 Americans are going to work right now without a paycheck. I've been back and forth from South Carolina to Washington numerous times since this shutdown started. I've stood in those airport lines. I've talked to the TSA agents and they're working and they're working very hard. They're polite. They're doing their job. And frankly, I don't know how they're doing it because a lot of them are trying to raise a family, pay a mortgage, and keep up with their bills. We are seeing reports of TSA agents selling their own plasma just to put gas in their cars to drive to work. And it's appalling to me that we're sitting here today arguing about this. TSA workers have gone nearly half this fiscal year without pay. The lines are longer, the morale is gone, and people are quitting because they literally can't afford to stay in their jobs. But most disturbingly, look at what happened at LaGuardia just three nights ago. We saw a deadly collision on a runway. Two pilots lost their lives and dozens were injured. While we wait for the full investigation, we already know our aviation system is under unprecedented stress because of the stalemate. When you stop paying the people who keep our country safe, you are playing with fire. Meanwhile, nobody on this dais is missing a paycheck. Not one person here has missed a mortgage payment or skipped a meal. I voted twice and plan to do it again to reopen DHS. We need to get these people paid and stop putting the cost of your political games on the backs of working Americans. Admiral, in South Carolina's 3rd District, readiness is non-negotiable. My Made in America Defense Act, which was signed into law by President Trump, cut red tape for our upstate manufacturers who produce critical defense supplies. But while we work to move things faster, this DHS shutdown is creating a new bottleneck. Senate Democrats are playing political games and it's stalling our progress. Admiral, specifically, how is this instability degrading your ability to protect these critical defense supply chains right now?

Thank you for your question. Our defense industrial base is suffering right now and we need to rebuild it. Right now what we are seeing is ships in our shipyards where stop work is going on because we cannot pay the bills. We are seeing crucial readiness that needs to be done in the repair of these ships and the shipyard officers are not doing what our Coast Guard people are doing and working without a paycheck. They're asking us to leave those shipyards because we cannot pay the bills. So while we're allowed to contract, we can't pay the bills. And in many cases shipyards and industrial base leaders, that's 25 percent of their total income. So trying to get to them to help them with cash flow, we're not doing it. What we worry about is that's not only a near-term impact, but as we bid for these contracts with these companies in the future, they're not going to come to the Coast Guard. They'll go to the Navy, they'll go to the Marines, they'll go to the others receiving a budget.

Well, thank you so much. And thank you again for your service. And with that, I yield back.

Gentlelady yields back. I now recognize the gentlelady from Texas, Ms. Johnson, for five minutes of questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You know, it is so interesting to me. We're sitting here and what you have are members of both sides, Republican and Democrats alike, are telling each one of you, Coast Guard, TSA, CISA, FEMA, that your work is important. We value your work. We honor your service to this country and you should be paid. There seems to be unanimous agreement. Everyone here is saying you should be paid. No one is saying you should not be. No one. The problem is what we have a disagreement on is ICE, how it's functioning in this country, and how it's terrorizing the citizens of this country. And why we can't come together and agree and fund the things there's no disagreement on, each one of your agencies, and then respectfully disagree on what we disagree on and work on that. That's a very real, pragmatic, very responsible solution to where we are. All the important work you're doing gets funded. All of the employees you oversee gets handled. All of the important work you do for our national security gets paid for. Congress can work and agree on the things we agree on and then respectfully disagree where we disagree. And then our country is not shut down in a travel nightmare. And you know what? That is exactly what is before the House. I've signed a discharge petition to pay each one of you. Every one of my Democratic colleagues has said we agree with all this rhetoric on the on the on the right that you should be funded. That's what the American people want. That is responsible government. That is where when people come together, members of both sides, you should be able to fund what you agree on and then when you disagree, you work hard to solve that. But all this pomp from the Republicans is ridiculous because they are holding this agreement hostage for ICE. We're saying we want to continue to work on this and we want to make improvements, but they're like, no, no, no. We're going to insist on the issue that we have no agreement on in this country and put you guys all at hostage for that. And that is the that is what is wrong with government. That is why people don't trust the process. That's why the American people are so frustrated. There's absolutely no reason for our airports to be in this crisis. And all of the men and women that you serve, and I agree with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, I go I travel through DFW all the time. The men and women of the TSA are doing the very best they can under very difficult circumstances. We need FEMA in Texas. It's a critical organization. We need you to be functioning. I'm ready to fund all four of your agencies right now. I was ready to do it before. I voted to signed on to make that happen. But unfortunately, partisanship is getting in the way of you guys being funded yet again. It's another exhibit in a long line of exhibits of how dysfunctional Congress is because right now Republicans, they could fund you but they're choosing not to. There is a vehicle on the table to fund each one of your agencies right now and Republicans are refusing to do it. And let me just tell you why we're saying this is critically important. In my district, a constituent that I had was part of the Afghanistan evac program. He worked alongside our military in Afghanistan, was brought to this country by the United States of America. We brought him and his family here. He was detained by ICE and taking his kids to school and he's dead 24 hours later. And that cannot be allowed to happen in this country. He's a father of six, was working. Do you know how many criminal convictions he has? Zero. That is why ICE is so broken. And that is what is so wrong. And your agencies should never be held hostage to justify the rogue terroristic attacks that these agents are doing upon the citizens and the people of this country. And I am sorry that Republicans are holding you hostage because we want TSA functional. Our air traffic control system is fundamental to this country. The Coast Guard, you do admirable work, sir. And the men and women in the Coast Guard are heroes and should be paid. But what is happening and what happened to my constituent should never be allowed to happen in this country and we're going to hold the line until we can make some serious corrections to what ICE is doing. And I'm out of time and I yield back. Oh, wait, one thing. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to offer into the record an article titled US Flight Attendants Demand Pay for TSA to Keep Airport Secure and Not Create Havoc with ICE.

Without objection. For clarification purposes, House Republicans have voted to fund the Department of Homeland Security twice, including the four agencies that are here today. So, that's for clarification purposes. I now recognize the gentleman from Colorado, Mr. Evans, for five minutes of questions.

Thank you, Chairman, Ranking Member, and of course to the witnesses for coming. Wow, I can't believe I just heard my ears. I spent 12 years in the US Army deployed overseas as part of the Global War on Terror, another 10 years in law enforcement, and I I literally just heard my colleague across the aisle say ICE is committing terrorist attacks. I don't think you can get a clearer example of where folks stand when my colleagues on the other side of the aisle compare federal law enforcement to terrorists at a time where we have literal terrorists that I deployed to fight committing attacks in the homeland. That's incredibly disappointing to me. It's incredibly disappointing to me because as a police officer for 10 years, I know what the the path was that led me to Congress. I watched all of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle push to defund law enforcement. They ran on this message, they opened our borders, and that's what's happening today. Democrats continue to defund the police just by refusing to pass the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill. I know it, I saw it as a cop, it's what's playing out today, and they've done it, done it not once, but twice. This isn't conjecture, go look up the votes. HR 7147. This is the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill. Look up the votes on HR 7147. Look up the votes on HR 7747. This is the second Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill. Go look at the votes, follow the actual facts. And then, Mr. Chairman, not just me saying this and referring to the votes, this is The Hill. I'll read you the the headline. DHS shutdown stretches to 35 days as Democrats block funding bill. A motion to advance the bill failed 47 to 37, falling short of the 60 votes it needed to overcome a Democrat filibuster. Centrist Senator John Fetterman was the only Democrat to vote yes. Mr. Chairman, with your consent, I move to admit this to the record.

Without objection.

Thank you. We know what's happening right now. We have the Department of Homeland Security shut down because Democrats have never moved on from defunding the police, they've never moved on from their open borders policies. The votes back it up, The Hill backs it up, and while this is happening, critical agencies like CISA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, is being shut down. CISA has blocked billions of cyber threats to our civilian networks and critical infrastructure in 2025. The Coast Guard, key to combating drug trafficking in the Western Hemisphere, and I'll remind my colleagues, drugs under the previous administration killed 400,000 Americans. That's shut down. Wildfire risk in Colorado is at an all-time high due to drought and an unusually dry winter. The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, which ensures that law enforcement is trained, has shut down, which is ironic because I keep hearing from Democrats that they want ICE agents to be trained better, but they're shutting down the very entity that helps with federal law enforcement training. TSA callouts are at a record high across US airports and as of today, 460 officers have left TSA. Travelers are seeing long lines and you can see behind me that we literally have Denver International Airport, which is the airport I fly in and out of, asking for gift cards and donations to their TSA agents so that they can maybe make ends meet and keep coming to work. And so, my first question to Administrator McNeill. How many people, especially parents, would accept a job with the promise of intermittent gift cards instead of a secure paycheck and how have these shutdowns impacted your agency's ability to recruit and retain officers?

I think you're absolutely right, Congressman. We have heard report back of folks that have been interested in joining the TSA and had plans to, but you know, with with the situation this year and us being in our third shutdown, it's really hard for them to go home and tell their family, this is the job that I'm going to take, it's a job that pays me half of the time for my work. And so, I think that is really a challenge for us. And then for the officers that are there, they're continuing to show up under under duress, honestly, right, financial duress, and they're continuing their commitment to the traveling public and we could not be prouder of them.

Our thanks to those TSA officers. In my remaining 45 seconds to FEMA. I spent 12 years in the US Army, Blackhawk helicopter pilot, I've flown on wildfires, fought wildfires. We're facing historic drought in the West. Tell me how FEMA not having the funding impacts their ability to do the pre-planning for some of these major disasters, including wildfires.

Yes, Congressman. Like I mentioned earlier, we have about 45,000 people a week, those are emergency responders, leads for for states on on response efforts that are missing out on critical training. Wildfires are ongoing as you know right now. And those impacts of them not getting that training may not be measured, but but it is being missed out. I hear every day from from external partners how much it's impacting them.

Our national security is at risk. Fund the Department of Homeland Security. Yield back.

Gentleman yields back. I now recognize the gentleman from Puerto Rico, Mr. Hernandez, for five minutes of questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There are over 700 TSA employees in Puerto Rico right now who are about to miss their third paycheck. And there is a proposal to fund TSA and pay these employees, but Republicans are holding back on it. I think this is a disgrace. Ms. McNeill. President Trump has ordered ICE agents to airports to supplement security during this shutdown, correct?

That's correct.

And those ICE agents are getting paid, correct?

That's my understanding, yes.

And those TSA agents they're supposed to support are not getting paid, correct?

That's correct.

So, we have a policy in place where we don't pay the people who are qualified to do the job. As a result, they're missing out, they're not going to work, they're quitting, and we're sending people who are getting paid to do a different job. How is that fair?

I don't think that's policy, that's a matter of not having funding.

It's a matter of not having funding and there is a proposal to fund it and to solve this problem. But we have a system where we have a group that is paid to watch the lines and then highly trained TSA professionals working for free. Now, you'd agree that a TSA officer is better qualified to handle aviation security than an ICE agent, right?

That's what TSA officers are trained to do.

Right. So, we are penalizing the most qualified people. What is TSA doing right now to keep those families who are not getting paid from being evicted?

I'm here today to ask for funding for the Department of Homeland Security.

They're not doing anything and they're not expressing support. You as an agency head are not expressing support for proposals to fund TSA and delay funding for ICE who are getting paid.

That is your responsibility to fund the US government.

And there is a proposal in place for that and Republicans keep rejecting it. What are they doing to help feed those employees and their families?

We're doing food pantry donations.

Now, is it true that DHS has told state governors that they can't support federal employees with state funds?

That is not true. There are laws in how we can use donated funds and where they have offered, we have been able to support that.

Has TSA told governors that they cannot pay TSA employees their salaries?

That is correct. That is a matter of law.

Is that a matter of law or a matter of policy?

It's a matter of law from my understanding.

Do you support changing that law in the future?

Well, that would be the role of Congress to change laws.

But would you support it? Would you support paying TSA employees in spite of government shutdowns in the future?

I think that we need to look really hard after the we come out of this shutdown to ensure that the continuity of our operations...

We have proposals for that and they have not been voted on. I want to move over to FEMA. Ms. Barton. How many FEMA staff are currently reporting to their workplace but not performing work?

I'm not familiar with your question.

We've seen reports that many FEMA employees are being asked to report to work but not to do any actual work. Is that correct?

Everyone who's reporting to work in my staff is completing the functions that they're allowed to do under the lapse guidance.

Well, we are concerned to learn that FEMA leadership issued an agency-wide directive last month ordering all activities to cease, including work by staff funded through the Disaster Relief Fund, who are still being paid during the shutdown. And these are the very employees responsible for overseeing long-term recovery efforts, like the projects underway in Puerto Rico. These projects operate on strict performance timelines. Every single day counts and delays are not an option. And this is compounding existing delays caused by the previous secretary's disastrous policy requiring personal approval for FEMA projects over $100,000. And now we are hearing that FEMA staff are just sitting around playing video games and watching TV on the clock. That is a complete waste of taxpayers' money. Now, how is this stop work order impacting long-term recovery for places like Puerto Rico?

I'm not familiar with the exact stop work order. It may be the previous DHS guidance that went out. So I will look into that and get back to you. I understand we do have new leadership.

Okay, thank you. You can get back to us on that. And now, because I'm almost out of time, the director of FEMA's recovery office in Puerto Rico was fired last month on the same day as a meeting between then-Secretary Noem and our governor. DHS has not provided us or the public with a reason for this termination. And we find it suspicious that FEMA's recovery director for Puerto Rico was fired mere hours after their meeting. Did you have a role in Mr. Garcia-Martino's termination?

In my capacity, I'm at FEMA. I'm not privy to how that meeting was and I was not part of that meeting.

But did you have a role in his termination?

No, I did not.

Do you know why he was terminated?

I'm not familiar with the exact details, but I happen to...

We think transparency is important and we find the timing of this suspicious and disruptive to Puerto Rico's long-term recovery efforts. Thank you, I yield back.

Thank you.

Gentleman yields back. And for I appreciate my colleague's comments, but for clarification purposes, House Republicans have voted twice to fund the Department of Homeland Security, including the four agencies that are here today. I now recognize the gentleman from Alabama, Mr. Strong, for five minutes of questions.

Thank you, Chairman Garbarino, Ranking Member Thompson, and I thank the witnesses for being here today. We are less than 100 days away from hosting the world's largest sporting event featuring 104 matches across 16 cities, equivalent to three Super Bowls a day for five weeks. And Democrats continue to put politics over security of our nation. All members will be given another chance to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security this week. I look forward to voting for a third time along with my Republican colleagues to fully fund the department and each of your agencies. I'm especially grateful to the TSA workforce at Huntsville International Airport where operations are continuing, albeit a little slower pace, despite the challenges and fiscal strain caused by the shutdown. However, not every small airport has the same level of community support. Ms. McNeill, as TSO call-out rates continue to rise, are smaller airports at risk to reduce operations or temporary or temporary closure and what would be the impact on the communities that rely on them?

Thank you, Congressman. As the shutdown drags on and we see increases in call-out rates, we'll have to make real-time decisions on how we operate. And so for example, we have many small airports that operate one or two lanes and a few call-outs could really severely impact our ability to run the operations. And so in those scenarios, we would not be able to open the checkpoint at the airport.

Thank you, Ms. McNeill. Could you also tell us how the current lapse in appropriations affects TSA contracts, equipment development, and pilot programs and what the operational consequences of those disruptions are?

Thank you, Congressman. So yes, during a shutdown, there are delays to our acquisition and procurement and deployment of of new technology. And then also on the research and development side, that that largely stops as well. And so it does really hinder our ability to modernize TSA and deploy additional technology out there and get the tools out there in the hands of our officers, the tools that they need and deserve to do their jobs every day.

Thank you. Turning to Ms. Barton, with over 40 years of experience as a first responder, assistant fire chief, I take public safety and emergency response efforts very seriously, especially those undertaken by our firefighters. How are US Fire Administration operations, including the National Fire Academy, being affected and how could a prolonged shutdown impact the preparedness of firefighters across the country?

Thank you, Congressman, and thank you for your service. The USFA has had to cancel several of their training and postpone that to include a police week that they host in Emmitsburg as well. These critical trainings being postponed are impacting training and responsibilities throughout the nation, as well as the opportunity for emergency responders to coordinate and share lessons with each other in person.

Thank you. Admiral Allan, I was encouraged to see the Coast Guard exceed in fiscal year 2025 recruiting goals and I was especially glad to see the announcement of the new training center in my home state of Alabama, which will help strengthen the Coast Guard's workforce pipeline. However, that kind of momentum can be fragile during funding lapses. How has the current shutdown disrupted recruiting, training, and your programs?

Sir, thank you for that question. Just a couple points on that. So as we try to get recruits to our training center, Cape May, we're seeing about a 10 percent delay in in those guys actually getting there. So we are already falling behind on the numbers that are there. Second, our our food services culinary specialists that make the food there, they rely on vendors in the towns to deliver food. We are not paying those vendors anymore and we're worried that any day they're going to stop showing up with food to to pay our recruits that are at our training centers and in our other places. And then I think while we've had great retention, now we are dealing with, hey, if you go to other services, you'll get paid. DHS it continues to be a question.

Thank you. Ms. Barton, FEMA's Center for Domestic Preparedness is in my home state of Alabama. Are the students that are typically trained at the center... How would you assess the impact of these classes and postponements of national security and readiness overall?

Overall, there's been several training, I about 45,000 students and and emergency responders who are able to participate in those trainings are having to postpone those. Travel has been canceled. I hear firsthand the impacts. Many folks are getting concerned the closer we get to hurricane season and just all the various response situations that come up. There may not be an exact metric, but as the days go on, it continues to get worse.

Thank you. Thank you and Chairman Garbarino, I yield back.

Gentleman yields back. I now recognize the gentlelady from New Jersey, Ms. Pou, for five minutes of questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and to the ranking members, member, I'm sorry, and thank you to the witnesses that are being that are here today. I'm really very happy that we are having this discussion. We all recognize that the Department of Homeland Security has a critical mission to protect American people. This is why the Democrats, the Democratic my Democratic colleagues and I have introduced legislation to fund TSA, FEMA, CISA, as well as the Coast Guard to end this shutdown. Sadly, Republicans are blocking these bills to stop reforming ICE and are holding agencies hostage to hide responsibility. The deployment of violent agents into cities like Minneapolis shows why we cannot give a ICE give ICE a blank check. We cannot continue to let them terrorize our communities and kill our neighbors. And we should get them out of our airports now. Last summer's reconciliation bill gave ICE and CBP enough funding to sustain themselves for years. So why then are Republicans still asking for more money for ICE? If my GOP colleagues cared about keeping our country safe, they would sign our discharge petition and force a floor vote on our bill to fund TSA and other DHS offices like FEMA and the Coast Guard immediately. Our bill would do everything possible to fund the Department of Homeland Security while supporting reforms that are supported by Democrats, Republicans, and independents alike. The problems we've seen over the last several years, pardon me, the last several weeks, let's be clear, the last several weeks are not all due to the shutdown. Yet DHS has launched a misinformation campaign to mask their own failures by blaming it on the shutdown. Let me give you an example. The FIFA World Cup security grant program. Last summer, Congress approved $625 million for host cities to enhance security and preparedness for the games. FEMA, an agency the president has gutted, was tasked with administering this grant program. Initial estimates place the delivery of these federal dollars in the hands of host cities by late fall. On November 12 of last year, FEMA's own announcement stated that this money would be awarded no later than January 30, two weeks before the DHS shutdown began. But let me just be clear. If you go to the FEMA website, their very own website, which was published and released last year in August 13 in 2025, it indicated that it would be awarding many of these projects by no later than September 30 of 2025. That was last year. We are still today talking about this. But what FEMA has done, it has absolutely blew it blew past all of those deadlines, leaving host cities in the dark on if this security funding would ever be delivered. Clearly, it was only just delivered for some of them, not all, just this past month, after so long, after so many of us talked about that. Our committee heard testimonies testimony from tournament organizers about the chaos and the uncertainty FEMA's delays caused. The growing backlash forced former Senator Secretary Noem to imply that she couldn't award this money because of the shutdown. But last week, all of a sudden, the money was made available anyway. Well, what which is it? Is it the shutdown? Is it last year's announcement? Is it what is it? Clearly, clearly had absolutely nothing to do with the shutdown. Ms. Barton, thank you very much for being here. Your you worked in the office of the secretary. Why blame the shutdown on DHS's own failure to deliver the World Cup grant funding on time?

Congresswoman, I also share your concerns on delays, however, we will say that this is the third shutdown we've experienced and during shutdowns...

Absolutely, no, no, no, no. I'm sorry, Ms. Barton. My question to you was why would you blame the deadline the failure to submit those grants on time on the shutdown when in fact that occurred prior to the shutdown? Please just answer the question, unless you are unable to answer it because of your own very your own department's very own doing. So please just answer the question. Why blame the shutdown on something that you all had the ability to do prior to the shutdown?

When turning on a machine after being off for over a month, these impacts are going to go beyond. Even though we get funded, the impacts have happened. So...

Did I not say that we had, Ms. Barton, did I not say that we had the I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman, sorry. Thank you for your for your levity. Ms. Ms. Barton, I clearly am out of time. Mr. Chairman, thank you for giving me that let that the ability to to speak beyond that. Let me just say that that's a question that still lies in front of us. We certainly need to do something about it. I yield back.

Gentlelady yields back. I now recognize the gentleman from California, Mr. Fong, for five minutes of questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for the panelists for not only your testimony but your service to our country and your teams as well. America's homeland security is not a political game. Every agency tasked with our homeland security needs to be fully operational at full strength, period. Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bipartisan funding package for the Department of Homeland Security. Regrettably, Senate Democrats chose to abandon this bipartisan and bicameral deal, which brings us here today. Our nation, unfortunately, is less safe and homeland security personnel are continuing to work without pay. In my home state of California, we are preparing for the World Cup, we're preparing for the Olympics. However, attendee safety and the success of these games hinge on the Department of Homeland Security's ability to work with state and local law enforcement agencies even through government shutdowns. I wanted to ask each of the panelists, I know each of you have a different role to play in the planning, but have there been any key planning milestones that have been missed due to the shutdown when it comes to the planning for these these international events? And if DHS were fully funded today, how long would it take to get back on track? And we can start from the Admiral and go go on down.

Yes, sir, as as we do planning for these big events, we have missed milestones and our estimate is every day that there is a shutdown it takes us two and a half days to recover.

Ms. McNeill.

Congressman, I guess that the impact is felt really on on multiple fronts, but for us it's about staffing the airports that are supporting the FIFA locations and we have plans in place, but that is based on, you know, what we understand our laydown to be. If we see a spike in attrition, we're going to have to pivot and as I mentioned earlier, hiring and training takes a while and so that will impact our posture for FIFA. On the other part of this is the counter-UAS mission. Our federal air marshals are acquiring technology and and with the delay in in funding and the shutdown that is pushing that to the right and we're running right up to the wire in our ability to procure, deploy, and train with these counter-UAS technologies.

Thank you, Congressman. There are impacts across all segments of CISA's mission at this time. It is, you know, a burden borne nearly exclusively by our employees and the contractors that that are supporting them. So whether it's for World Cup or America 250 events or LA 2028 prep, we're going to continue to see compounding impacts here that are going to affect both the items that require proactive planning like that and our ability to have a ready workforce that's going to be able to respond to reactive elements within our threat environment.

Thank you, Congressman. FEMA's role in the FIFA World Cup planning, we provide critical funding, training, and preparedness support to these communities, including security planning. The compounded effects of multiple shutdowns over the last six months clearly has made us miss some milestones to include the funds that the congresswoman had just mentioned as the FIFA World Cup funding. As this continues, I imagine we will continue to see more breakdowns as we do not have our entire team in place to work on these efforts.

So so no doubt the consequences are are very real. This is not an academic conversation that that we're having and American lives and the lives of of our visitors, international visitors, are are put at risk. In terms of coordination, how has the shutdown affected information sharing and coordination with local law enforcement and host committees? Our fusion joint task forces, our interagency planning groups, how has that been affected and what gaps are forming right now? And we'll start with that question is for everybody.

Sir, I'll I'll start. So we continue that function as as far as intelligence sharing and law enforcement tracking. What I would say is when you look at these events, these are very complicated events. These are not pickup games. They require a lot of coordination, synchronization, training, and we're looking to bring in new assets and training on those assets. So it's not only a a point of intelligence, but the what we do with that intelligence to buy the right assets and get the right training for the people that are doing it.

Congressman, we are also continuing the collaboration with state and local authorities on intelligence and information sharing, but we're not working at full force right now because during a shutdown we have many mission enabling and other functions that are furloughed and so it is impacting the pace at which we are doing that and we're looking forward to getting back to normal order.

Intelligence information exchange continues. It persists through the funding lapse at CISA, but I will tell you that the capacity for us to continue to do that is becoming exceedingly strained. I had a single day just a couple of weeks ago that we received six resignation notices from the highly technical subject matter experts that we have in places like our threat hunt and incident response sections. That's not a sustainable model going forward and at some point the compounding risk within this dynamic threat landscape is going to cause real damage to American people.

I've run out of time, but I thank you for the information. It's a very sobering assessment and we need to get the Department of Homeland Security open as quickly as possible today. We need the Senate Democrats to take up our bill. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.

Gentleman yields back. I now recognize the gentleman from Virginia, Mr. Walkinshaw, for five minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Andersen, you've been at CISA since September of 2025, is that correct?

Yes, Congressman, it is.

Okay. And I presume you have some awareness, you've reviewed what took place at CISA between January 2025 and September 2025 and I want to walk through that time period because I think it's important context for for your testimony today. Is it true that CISA's workforce was reduced by approximately 1,000 employees in early 2025, yes or no?

I'd have to get you follow-on information about the early the early 2025.

It's true. Thank you, Mr. Andersen. Is it true that some CISA employees were reassigned from CISA to ICE and CBP in 2025? Yes or no?

To the best of my understanding less than 10 employees have been reassigned.

Yes, it's true. Is it true that CISA's previous acting director, who was recently removed from his position, failed a polygraph test, which was required to access certain sensitive documents, yes or no?

I'd have to refer you to our security office for that.

It's been widely reported that is true. Is it true that the senior staff leading CISA's secure by design initiative, which promotes the development of more secure technologies, left the agency? Is that true?

We've seen vacancies in several spots that will continue to compound.

Senior staff leading that effort left. Is it true that the multi-state information sharing and analysis center, which provided cybersecurity services to state and local governments, was eliminated? Is that true?

That is not true.

It is it is true.

The MS-ISAC continues to exist today, sir. Our funding for it through the cooperative agreements does not. That ended in September of 2025.

The funding's kind of an important part of it for the state and local governments who participated in it, the funding is kind of a critical piece of it. Is it true that the election infrastructure sharing and analysis center was eliminated?

No, sir, again it was not eliminated. We continue to...

Was the funding for it eliminated?

I would have to get back to you with that.

Yes. Is it true that the cyber safety review board was disbanded?

The cyber safety review board authority still exists and should there be an incident...

Is it operating? Is it functional today?

Sir, the secretary has the ability to call a CSRB together.

It's not. Is it true that the cybersecurity advisory committee was eliminated and is not functioning today?

I'm sorry, sir, I didn't catch which which particular...

Cybersecurity advisory committee.

To the best of my knowledge that does not exist today.

Is it true that the critical infrastructure partnership advisory council no longer exists today to use your language, yes or no?

Sir, we have the authority to be able to move forward with with CIPAC. I can't publish it in the federal register notice because it does not necessarily directly touch on imminence of threat and protection of life and property.

No longer operating. Was operating in 2024 is not today. I want to make sure I have this right. Before a single dollar of appropriations lapsed, before this shutdown, this administration cut 1,000 employees, reassigned others to immigration enforcement, gutted advisory structures, eliminated information sharing partnerships. When I read your opening statement I was struck by a few things that you wrote. You said, and I'm quoting directly, the shutdown prevents us from operating under normal conditions. You said many proactive services planning and industry and stakeholder engagements are paused or significantly scaled back. You said planned engagements with critical partners are on hold all because of the shutdown. Those statements are true. But here's the irony. Long before this shutdown, your agency's workforce was gutted. Advisory committees and stakeholder engagements were shut down. Information sharing centers eliminated. The shutdown didn't start this crisis at CISA. Donald Trump did. And why? Because in 2020, CISA refused to validate his stolen election conspiracy theory and one of your predecessors, a patriot, refused to validate President Trump's stolen election conspiracy theory. The legislation Democrats have put forward would fund CISA and pay your staff, but what we really need is an administration that treats cybersecurity as a national security priority and rebuilds from the terrible damage that's then been done. Mr. Anderson, I want to go back to Director, Acting Director Gadamakala and the failed polygraph test. That was a polygraph required to access sensitive documents. My understanding is six CISA employees were put on leave for following the protocols required by CISA and the agency that owned that information. And I want to ask you, will you commit to working with this committee to ensure that the employees who were put on leave were reinstated, any derogatory information added to their personnel records are removed? And if you won't commit to that, will you commit to briefing me and any other members of this committee about that incident? I want to know why Director Gadamakala failed the polygraph test and why six employees who were following the agency's protocol were put on leave.

Yes, sir, we we would be happy to be able to share that information with with this committee. However, I will have to refer you to the Department of Homeland Security's headquarters elements that's actually leading any investigation pertaining to that, that is not an item that's being investigated within CISA.

Well, will you commit to briefing us and helping to facilitate a briefing on that incident?

I'm committed to going back to DHS and carrying forward that request back sir to be able to share that information with you.

All right. Thank you.

Gentleman yields back. I now recognize the gentleman from Tennessee, Mr. Van Epps, for five minutes.

Thank you Mr. Chairman for holding this critically important hearing and to our witnesses for joining us. We are nearly 40 days into this feckless shutdown. The cost of this Democrat political stunt is the invaluable human capital of the men and women that serve DHS. Under the Biden administration's open border policies, we had criminals coming into the country that are putting American lives at risk. Like in the case of 18-year-old Sheridan Gorman, just this week, murdered by an illegal alien who shouldn't have been here in the first place. Her sister is a student at Vanderbilt University in my district. This family is suffering unimaginable loss and pain and I'm sick of it. And yet Democrats are still keeping DHS shut down, the very department in charge of protecting Americans at home. Because of Democrats' political games, TSA personnel have gone multiple pay periods without compensation. 95 percent of TSA's workforce is deemed essential and we rely on them every day to keep us safe. These agents serve our country and keep us safe every day. And I'm thankful for President Trump and this administration for doing so. And yet Democrats are treating them like sacrificial lambs. This is absolutely no way to thank these brave men and women. Not only that, but Democrats are creating a compounding workforce shortage crisis for TSA. Already over 400 Transportation Security Officers have separated from TSA. And because it takes four to six months to train a TSO, TSA hasn't finished fully training those hired to replace the officers that left during the last shutdown. So, here we are in March with the first World Cup events only a few months away and even if we reopen today, we won't be able to fully replace the officers that have quit because of Democrats' unnecessary and destructive shutdown. Ahead of summer, America's busiest travel season and major events like FIFA, the Olympics and America 250, not to mention the increased terror threat due to the conflict with Iran, Democrats are foolishly crippling TSA and putting American lives at risk. This ridiculous shutdown has gone on long enough. It's time for my Democrat colleagues to come to their senses. Now I want to again thank our witnesses for joining us as I know you all are operating with a diminished workforce. Ms. McNeill, TSA lost over a thousand TSOs during the last shutdown and we've already lost another 400 during this shutdown. The fact is we don't have four to six months to train and surge workforce needs ahead of the World Cup. Can you talk a little bit more, expound on how you're preparing to accelerate preparedness ahead of the anticipated high traffic?

Thank you Congressman. We are obviously watching our attrition rates very closely, looking at our ready pool for recruitment to see what we can do there as well. We have a national deployment force, which is a national force what we can surge in different locations. We're looking to increase those numbers and the training for officers to join that force and it'll allow us to surge to these different locations. But I will tell you that, you know, we are in a very dire situation when it comes to our ability to staff the multiple different locations for the FIFA World Cup as well as the base camps where the teams are going to be. I mean this is going to be a really complex operation and what's more what we are seeing in this shutdown is that more experienced officers are leaving and that expertise you can only make up with time and experience.

Thank you. Admiral, I want to talk a couple of questions on Coast Guard impacts on readiness. Sir, how is the shutdown impacted Coast Guard's access to maintenance facilities?

Sir, the United States defense industrial base is already suffering. There's not enough capacity within it. So we work very hard to get the capacity we need. Now that we have ships in those yards and they are doing maintenance, we haven't been able to pay them for 40 days. So we are seeing stop work orders come in on several of our ships and then several of our vendors are saying they are not going to continue to work with the Coast Guard because they can't be guaranteed pay.

So Admiral, are there so those are the cutters, aircraft, small boats, critical systems that are under contract that must be paused during this shutdown?

Yes sir. So it's the payment of those, yes sir.

Do you know ballpark how many Coast Guard assets are going without maintenance due to funding gaps?

So sir, right now we are allowed to contract for that maintenance. It's then just dealing with the vendors that are providing it and we're watching that number grow every day on those that are deciding to cut off the free support to the Coast Guard.

Great, thank you. And I'm out of time. Thank you witnesses, appreciate you being here today. Mr. Chairman I yield back.

Gentleman yields back. I now recognize the gentleman from Louisiana, Mr. Carter for five minutes of questions.

Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. You know, I've repeatedly listened to my colleagues suggest that this is a Democratic shutdown. Are you aware, Ms. McNeill, that there were at least five opportunities in the Senate to pay TSA and it was blocked by Republicans? Are you aware of that?

I'm aware of the votes on the Department of Homeland Security where the...

Ma'am, are you aware that there were five opportunities and it was blocked where we could have paid TSA? The answer is yes. Mr. Chairman, could I ask you to remind these individuals that they're under oath?

Yes, the witnesses are reminded that they are under oath and to answer the questions to the best of your ability.

Thank you. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Are you aware, Ms. McNeill, that in 2023 under the leadership of then Chairman Bennie Thompson, TSA was granted a raise? Yes or no?

I am aware.

Are you aware that there wasn't a single vote on the Republican side in this committee to support that raise?

I don't know the details.

You knew that we voted, we did it. And you know that, but you don't know how the vote went down.

I wasn't...

Well I will tell you how it went down, ma'am. Democrats unanimously voted for it, Republicans unanimously voted against it. But you got that raise. You should that's important to note because what that demonstrates is the support that Democrats have for men and women who put on the uniform and work for us every single day as we are fighting to make sure they're funded now. Ms. Barton, the state of Louisiana currently has 20 hazard mitigation and flood mitigation projects totaling some $71 million awaiting FEMA approval. The majority of these are stuck in former Secretary Nielsen's bottleneck approval process for any award over $100,000, which as you might imagine, holds everything up. Will these projects finally be approved?

Hi Congressman. I am aware that there are mitigation projects that are pending obligation. They do get funded out of the DRF. As soon as we are able to ensure that we have a healthy funding ability, we would be happy to work with your office and ensure that those obligations get made.

Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Ms. McNeill, how many total hours or weeks does a TSA officer candidate spend in training before being certified for duty?

In total, it takes about four to six months to fully...

Four to six months, thank you. And of that time, what specific portion is dedicated to specialized detection skills, such as identifying concealed weapons, explosives and other prohibited materials through the physical screening and advanced imaging technology?

I would say significant, but I can get you a briefing.

Significant. Very good. Administration, but you have ICE agents that are now there and it was said in testimony that they were helping with screening. But you just said it takes four to six months of training. How can ICE, don't shake your head ma'am, it's on the record. The it was said by you or others at this table that they're there to help with screening. But they can't. Not when you in your own testimony moments ago to Representative McIver said you started training them on Monday. Ma'am, today is Wednesday. I'm asking the questions, can you just wait for me to answer. Today is Wednesday. You said you started Monday. You also just said that it takes four to six months, which spells out exactly our fear that it's nothing more than window dressing and cheap theater and political performance to bring ICE agents in who are many of which are hardly trained to even do the functions of ICE, let alone to come to to airports and do sophisticated screening and training that TSA officers take four to six months to be able to do. Yet you suggest that they can do it with two days of training. How is that possible, ma'am?

So the ICE officers that are helping out at these key airports are not doing the specialized screening functions. They are doing the the functions that don't take as much training and...

Which ones are those?

So those as I mentioned earlier, helping man the queue, helping with divestiture...

Help man the queue, direct the flow. Direct the flow. So no training required for that at all. But you're paying TSA agents or you're paying ICE agents to come to airports and you're paying them a hefty sum with limited or no training to add insult to I'm not sure why you keep making that face ma'am. I'm I'm asking you questions and all day you have evaded the opportunity to answer honestly, which is why I asked the Chairman to remind you and others that you're under oath. This is not a game. I don't care who was took you outside and gave you a coaching lesson on how you should respond. I would hope they would tell you to answer honestly, to answer forthright, to not dance around and put yourself in position to possibly perjure yourself. This is a very serious hearing about dedicated workers deserving to be paid and there were multiple opportunities to do that, even multiple opportunities to ask you specifically, would you support a standalone bill to make sure your people were going to be paid and you said no. Why would you not want to? Mr. Chairman, my time is is expired but I will follow up.

Gentleman yields back. I now recognize the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Green for five minutes of questions.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. Thank the ranking member and associate myself with his commentary. Friends, members of the panel, I have a question for you and I would like for you to extend your hand into the air if you believe this is the case. If you believe that the Safeguard America Voter Eligibility Act, the SAVE Act, caused the shutdown, please raise your hand. Please raise your hand if you believe it caused the shutdown. Let the record reflect that no one has raised a hand. I ask this question because the President is putting politics above people. I have in my hand an article from The Hill. It is styled Trump: No shutdown deal until Democrats support Save America Act. The real reason the shutdown continues is President Trump's requiring the passage of bills unrelated to the shutdown. That's the real reason. Let me read from the article in part. President Trump late Sunday, this was written on 3/23/26 a couple of days ago, said there will be no deal to end the partial government shutdown until Democrats join with Republicans to pass the Safeguard America Voter Eligibility Act, the SAVE Act. Now, this article reads in part, Senate Majority Leader John Thune has reportedly said repeatedly, there aren't enough votes to get the bill over the finish line anytime soon. Trump has written that Republicans should support this bill and that they should somehow require Democrats to do so. But here's a quote from the President, and he's talking about Republicans and Democrats who don't support this bill. They will never be elected again. In other words, lump everything together as one and vote with three exclamation points. Kill the filibuster. Now, there is the real reason. The President desires to kill the filibuster, the requirement that you have 60 votes to get to cloture before you can pass a bill with 51. He wants to kill the filibuster. And if he can accomplish this, then he'll do some other dastardly things. But killing the filibuster is his goal, and as a result of this being his goal, he is pushing the Republicans to use 51 votes as opposed to continuing to use the rule that requires 60. The President doesn't care about the TSA workers. This is not about helping them. It's about getting his way, and he has complete control of the Republican Party. He really does. And given that he controls it, he is demanding that it obey his command to kill the filibuster, and he's providing them a means, a methodology by which this can be accomplished. Friends, the President does not really think that keeping these workers underpaid and not paid at all is an important issue as it relates to his presidency. I differ with him. And I want to defend the TSA workers as I close. Because to send in ICE is an insult to them. There has not been any meaningful indications that the workers were not managing well the crowds that were there, the people who were coming in, the public, the flying public. There's not been any meaningful indication that they haven't been doing a good job. And to somehow conclude that ICE is necessary, notwithstanding the fact that a good many members of the flying public are antithetical to this, is an insult to them. I was in the airport just yesterday, and I had many people to approach me and tell me that they are afraid of ICE and they would prefer that ICE not be at the airport. So I say, let's remove ICE, let's pass legislation to have the workers get paid, and let's end this attempt to eliminate the filibuster rule. The filibuster rule for the President is an obstacle that he plans to eliminate. I thank you and I yield back.

Gentleman yields back. Ranking Member, you're recognized.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Earlier in this hearing, Mr. Pfluger incorrectly stated that this committee held no hearings on border security in 2021 and 2022. In fact, the committee held six full committee hearings and 13 subcommittee hearings in 2021 and 2022. And I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record those committee and subcommittee hearings.

Without objection.

Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record my letter signed by 33 members of Congress addressed to then Secretary Noem and Acting Administrator FEMA dated November 18, 2025, calling for FEMA to expedite the awards for the 275 million in nonprofit security grant funding that Congress appropriated over a year.

Without objection.

Mr. Chairman, on behalf of Mr. Magaziner, I ask unanimous consent to include in the record a letter from four unions expressing support for the Democratic funding proposal for DHS.

Without objection.

I yield back.

Gentleman yields back.

I have a UC request, Mr. Chairman.

Yes, gentleman's recognized.

Yes, I ask unanimous consent that the Hill article styled Trump: No shutdown deal until Democrats support Save America Act, that it be inserted into the record.

Without objection.

Thank you.

Thank you. The members of the committee, witnesses, thank you very much for being here. The members of the committee may have some additional questions for you all, and we'd ask that you all respond to these in writing pursuant to committee rule 7E. The hearing record will be held open for 10 days. Again, thank you all for your testimony today and for being here. And without objection, this committee stands adjourned.