The Department of Homeland Security is feeling the squeeze as the partial government shutdown targeting the department continues into its third month.
A new report from CBS News, based on conversations with two dozen department employees, paints a picture of a department in disarray and employees at their breaking point.
DHS funding has become a hot-button issue as Democrats in Congress have insisted on reforms to ICE and CBP policies before they will agree to fund the department, leading to a partial government shutdown beginning on February 14 that only impacts Homeland Security.
The department has faced additional turmoil with the ousting of Secretary Kristi Noem and the installation of Sen. Markwayne Mullin in her place, as well as the departure of some 400 TSA employees and CBP’s chief medical officer.
In their interviews with CBS, DHS employees expressed a similar sentiment across the board, claiming that they feel forgotten, “not just by Congress, but by a political system that in their view, has little understanding of how DHS functions in the daily lives of Americans.”
One employee told the outlet, “What we do only becomes visible when something breaks. And right now, we’ve reached a breaking point.”
The shutdown has impacted the inner workings of the department in a myriad of ways. Software subscriptions have lapsed, forcing employees to use what one person described as “unique and humorously complex workarounds.”
Some offices have run out of paper clips, while others are reusing old documents as printer paper, flipping them over and printing on the reverse side. The department’s Office of Public Affairs only uses three-hole punched paper because it’s all that’s left.
CBS reports that staff have resorted to roaming the hallways in search of toner cartridges and ink, and that staples have become a rare commodity. “Employees have been reduced to bartering for office supplies,” the outlet notes.
Beyond office supply shortages, the lack of funding has impacted the department in more dramatic ways, as vendors are forced to gamble on whether they will be paid for their work or not.
Government travel credit cards cannot be processed during the shutdown, and with the shutdown on its 68th day, many are now more than two months overdue.
Unable to make payments without being reimbursed, employees’ personal credit scores have taken a hit.
“You wouldn’t ask this of anyone in any other job,” a DHS employee told CBS of the working conditions inside the department. “But somehow here, among the ranks of our nation’s homeland security apparatus, it’s status quo.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
The disarray inside the department is most visible to Americans at the nation’s airports. TSA has hemorrhaged employees during the shutdown, with more than 780 resigning rather than continue working without pay.
As a result, many airports suffered four-hour-long wait times at TSA checkpoints, only experiencing relief at the end of March when employees began receiving back pay and wait times fell in response as employees who could not afford gas, childcare and rent began returning to work.
While attendance has improved, CBS notes that the damage to morale and institutional trust lingers among staff, particularly in light of the 2025 government shutdown that resulted in 1,100 TSA employees leaving the agency.
Other agencies within the department are also struggling during the shutdown, with CBS reporting that approximately 45,000 FEMA employees miss emergency training every week because classes at the National Fire Academy and the Center for Domestic Preparedness have been indefinitely postponed.
The agency’s Disaster Relief Fund only has $3.4 billion remaining, and is inching closer to a threshold known as Immediate Needs Funding. Under INF, FEMA spending is restricted to lifesaving operations only, preventing broader recovery and mitigation efforts from taking place.
Despite President Trump signing a memorandum ordering that DHS employees be paid, the department will run out of funds to continue paying employees after the first pay period in May.
“There is no more emergency fund,” Mullin told Fox News on Tuesday. “So the president can’t do another executive order for us to use money because there’s no more money there.”
Almost two-thirds of the department remains furloughed. Trump has given Congress until June 1 to pass a bill that will fund DHS, with Democrats continuing to push for reforms to immigration enforcement operations, arguing that anything less would mean providing agencies with a “blank check.”
