Barely three months after the end of the longest government shutdown in American history, and just two weeks since a days-long partial shutdown, the Department of Homeland Security is set to again run out of money at midnight.
Congress has already funded the rest of the federal government through the end of the fiscal year. But Democrats have blocked money for D.H.S. and vowed to oppose any spending bill that doesn’t include new restrictions on immigration agents.
The looming shutdown means employees of the Transportation Security Administration, which is part of D.H.S., must again work without pay beginning on Saturday. Here’s what travelers need to know.
How might travel be disrupted?
It was not immediately clear whether travelers this weekend would face delays at airport security checkpoints. During past shutdowns, disruptions were scattered at first but grew as the funding lapse dragged on and more T.S.A. agents and air traffic controllers called out of work.
But unlike in past shutdowns, air traffic controllers will not be directly affected this time because lawmakers have already funded the Department of Transportation.
About 95 percent of the T.S.A.’s 64,000 employees must continue showing up to work during a shutdown, according to a D.H.S. contingency plan published last September.
How could T.S.A. staff be affected?
Ha Nguyen McNeill, the T.S.A.’s acting administrator, told a House committee on Wednesday that another shutdown would be “unconscionable.”
She said that during the record 43-day shutdown last fall, some T.S.A. employees slept in their cars at airports to avoid paying for gas, took on second jobs and sold their blood plasma in order to pay their bills.
Experts and agency officials have warned that shutdowns of any duration, or even the threat of them, can hinder efforts to recruit and retain aviation safety professionals who are already in short supply.
Ms. McNeill told the House committee that the rate at which T.S.A. officers left the agency in October and November 2025 was up more than 25 percent compared to the year before. Many agents who left attributed their departures “to the uncertainty, stress, missed paychecks and financial hardships of the government shutdown,” Ms. McNeill said. She added that the agency is trying to increase its staffing this spring ahead of the World Cup.
A spokesman for the American Federation of Government Employees, a union that represents T.S.A. workers, declined to comment.
Two bills introduced in Congress last fall to pay T.S.A. workers and air traffic controllers during future shutdowns have stalled, despite having broad bipartisan support.
What if I’m traveling internationally?
Other branches of D.H.S. are expected to continue operations mostly as normal during the shutdown, though employees will work without pay. Ports of entry will remain open and most immigration, border and customs agents will continue to work, according to the contingency plan. Immigration enforcement and passenger processing at the border are among the activities that must continue during a lapse in funding, it says.
International travelers entering the United States with a valid visa and passport were not affected during past shutdowns.
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Gabe Castro-Root is a travel reporter and a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers.
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