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The very real possibility that the Department of Homeland Security will run out of funding at midnight on Friday will have a startling effect on the department's 240,000 workers - some of whom will be furloughed, many of whom will still be required to show up to work on Monday, none of whom will be paid.
In the short term, it should have little effect on travelers even though 50,000 of those workers are employed by the Transportation Security Administration. They are among the groups required in their contracts to report to work regardless, along with 40,000 border patrol agents, 40,000 active duty Coast Guard members, 13,000 immigration law enforcement officers, and 4,000 Secret Service agents.
However, more than 30,000 administrative workers are expected to be furloughed, meaning some of those people who are required to work might be pressed into other duties - like TSA agents who might be pulled from airport security lines to take on other jobs in the interim, creating fewer and longer lines.
The TSA screens nearly 2 million passengers daily at U.S. airports.
A stalemate between Republicans and Democrats in Congress has created the dilemma, with a new funding bill for DHS being used as leverage over President Obama's decision to use executive action to set immigration policy.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the onus is on Republicans.
"Our position right now is that Congress should do their job. And we continue to be hopeful that members of Congress - Republicans in particular - will live up to their promise to do their job, which is - our Founding Fathers gave the power of the purse to the United States Congress," he said at a daily press briefing. "And Republicans in Congress aggressively campaigned so that they could be in charge of that legislative body. That means they have a substantial responsibility for funding the kinds of operations that protect our homeland."
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