ToplineTravelers flying through Houston, Atlanta and New York face another day of long lines as unpaid Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers call out of work while Congress fails to work through a stalemate to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Ha Nguyen McNeill delivers an opening statement during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)Getty ImagesKey FactsHigh call-out rates could force the TSA “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,” acting TSA administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill testified to a congressional committee on Wednesday.Long lines “will only get worse” if Congress leaves Washington this weekend on a two-week Easter/Passover break before finding a way to pay airport security personnel, one TSA officer who spoke under anonymity told Forbes, adding “it will be harder for officers to make an effort if Congress isn’t also making an effort.”More than 450 TSA employees have quit since the partial shutdown began on Feb. 14, and the remaining workforce is scheduled to receive a second $0 paycheck this weekend, the agency confirmed.Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Wednesday continued to advise passengers “to allow at least 4 hours or more” to clear security.At Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, the security line topped three hours Wednesday morning as 36% of TSA officers there called out of work.TSA lines “wrapped around the terminal” at New York’s LaGuardia Airport early Wednesday morning, Fox News reported.Could The Tsa Shut Down Airports Due To Understaffing?Earlier this month, acting deputy TSA administrator Adam Stahl told Fox News, “It's not hyperbole to suggest that we may have to quite literally shut down airports—particularly smaller ones—if call-out rates go up.” Such a step would be drastic but not unheard of. During a previous government shutdown in 2019, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) temporarily shut down New York’s LaGuardia Airport due to a shortage of air traffic controllers, which led to the end of that shutdown. In the current partial shutdown, the call-outs are mainly impacting major airports, so it’s unclear how Stahl’s suggestion of closing smaller airports would solve the problem. “I suppose they could try plugging staffing holes at large airports with officers from smaller airports, but it does not seem like a logical fix,” one TSA worker told Forbes. Tsa Lines Continue To LengthenAs TSA workers prepare to miss a second full paycheck this weekend, TSA call-outs are expected to continue rising. The national call-out rates on Sunday and Monday were 11.76% and 10.93%, respectively. On Tuesday—typically a slower travel day—11.14% of the workforce called out of work, according to agency data. The airports with the highest call-out rates on Tuesday were: Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport (43%), Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental (39.8%), New York’s John F. Kennedy (36.8%), Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson (36.6%), New Orleans (35.6%) and Baltimore-Washington International (28.1%).Which Days Of The Week Will See The Worst Tsa Lines?Peak air travel days, when the highest volumes of passengers stream through airports, are typically Sunday, Monday, Thursday and Friday. Those are when staffing shortages will have the most impact. “So if you see shorter lines on a Tuesday or Wednesday, that’s expected,” Aaron Barker, a TSA union chief based at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport, told reporters on Tuesday.Are Ice Officers Helping To Reduce Wait Times At Airports?Not according to TSA workers. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers sent to Atlanta “are not doing any screening functions,” said Barker. “They are literally standing behind the [TSA] officers while they’re checking documents and screening passengers or walking the queue line.” Sending untrained and paid ICE agents into airports “is a straight up distraction to the real story of TSA officers going to work without being paid,” Johnny Jones, secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Government Employees TSA Council 100, the union representing airport security screeners, told reporters Tuesday. He added that deploying ICE officers, who are paid more than TSA agents, to airports was “an insult” to his TSA colleagues. Another TSA worker told Forbes he and his colleagues “are sickened” at seeing “unqualified DHS employees walking the airports—with pay” while he and his colleagues go unpaid. Why Hasn’t Congress Funded Tsa Separately From The Dhs Funding Bill?Late Monday, it seemed as if a bipartisan deal to fund TSA workers was in the works. But on Tuesday, Trump told reporters “any deal they make I’m pretty much not happy with it” regarding ongoing Senate negotiations to end the government shutdown and begin paying TSA agents again.Further ReadingTrump ‘Not Happy With’ Any DHS Funding Deal As TSA Works Without Pay And Airport Lines Hit 4 Hours (Forbes)Here's How Much ICE Agents At Airports May Be Making—As TSA Goes Unpaid (Forbes)