TSA agents selling blood plasma and sleeping in cars, official says

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Some Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents are selling their blood plasma to make ends meet as the 38-day Department of Homeland Security shutdown drags on, acting Deputy TSA Administrator Adam Stahl told reporters Tuesday.

“We got folks sleeping in cars,” Stahl told reporters at Washington’s Reagan National Airport, referring to TSA employees. “I talked to a single mother recently who has a three-year-old child with special needs and can’t afford to pay for childcare for that three-year-old child.”

Stahl also said some agents are having “blood drawn to afford gas to come to work.”

The bleak situation comes as TSA agents nationwide have been forced to report to work without pay during the prolonged funding lapse. More than 50,000 TSA personnel will miss their second full paycheck of the shutdown if the funding lapse is not resolved by Friday.

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Though talks to end the shutdown have ramped up in the past 24 hours, Stahl warned that the impact funding lapses have on TSA agents would continue to worsen if the shutdown does not end soon.

“It’s a dire situation,” Stahl said. “The longer our folks don’t get paid, the more they’re going to not be able to come into work and the more they’re going to quit altogether.”

The shortage of TSA workers at major travel hubs across the country has led to hours-long wait times at airport security checkpoints. Stahl said the ongoing spring break travel season could exacerbate airports’ staffing constraints.

More than 400 TSA agents have quit since the shutdown began on Feb. 14.

“This again is going to get worse before it gets better if Senate Democrats particularly don’t act and don’t act soon,” he said, adding that a mass exit of TSA workers hurts the agency’s ability to prepare for the upcoming FIFA World Cup later this summer.

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GOP lawmakers have blasted their Democratic colleagues for withholding support for a full-year DHS funding bill as the party demands reforms to immigration enforcement. They argue that TSA agents — in addition to thousands of other DHS workers employed by various sub-agencies — are victims of Democrats’ hardball tactics.

“The men and women who work for TSA agents are American heroes,” Rep. Mark Alford, R-Mo., said at Reagan National airport Tuesday. “Would you still be at your job if you were facing a third paycheck of not getting paid?”

TSA agents were also forced to work without pay during the record-breaking 43-day shutdown in fall 2025.

Democrats, by contrast, have blamed Republicans for opposing legislation that would fund DHS — including TSA — minus the department’s immigration enforcement functions.