[00:05.1]
Good morning. My name is Christie Majoros. I am the Regional Analyst for North America on Everbridge's Global Insights team. I'm sure you've all seen quite a bit in the news lately on the ongoing government shutdown situation. This is affecting the Department of Homeland Security. This department encompasses many other government agencies, and the debate really centers on the funding and reform for ICE and also, to some extent, Border Patrol.
[00:31.6]
However, we are seeing the lack of funding playing out in other arenas, most noticeably, TSA funding. So airports are experiencing these very long TSA screening lines, due to TSA personnel calling out or quitting, as they've not received a paycheck since mid February.
[00:55.7]
However, there have been developments on this front late last week and also yesterday, March 30th. I'm just going to outline a couple of those updates and give you a couple of takeaways. So on Friday afternoon, the Senate agreed upon and pushed forward a funding proposal, that would fund the Department of Homeland Security except for ICE and Border Patrol.
[01:24.1]
They sent this to the House for approval. It was not approved in the House. The House instead put forth a proposal for a continuing resolution. This would fund the Department of Homeland security at, 2025 fiscal year levels through May 22nd.
[01:43.2]
This resolution would need to be approved by the Senate and the President to move forward. However, Congress is now entering a two week recess, so decision on this matter will be postponed.
[02:02.7]
Should this resolution be passed when Congress returns, this will solve the immediate problem, restore funding for the Department of Homeland Security at least through May 22nd. However, in May, this is likely to continue to be a problem as the underlying problem of funding and reform for ICE has not been resolved.
[02:28.2]
If the resolution doesn't pass through the Senate, then the shutdown is likely to continue until a new funding proposal, is put forth. The situation regarding pay for TSA personnel also remains similarly unsolved, unresolved.
[02:47.3]
On Friday, the President issued an order for the Department of Homeland Security to go ahead and give those workers their back pay. So on Monday and also Today, Tuesday the 51st, they are receiving those checks that they missed, since February when the shutdown started.
[03:07.3]
However, it is unclear at this time whether this order also covers the next paycheck or only their back pay. So we could be seeing a situation in about two weeks where TSA workers are again not being paid, which would again lead to longer lines at the airports and renewed pressure on Congress to find a solution.
[03:35.7]
Now, there are really two takeaways from this situation. The first is that although the immediate situation has eased somewhat, it has not been resolved. Airports are likely to continue to see chaos in the coming weeks and months unless there is a more permanent solution arrived at.
[04:00.5]
The other big takeaway from this is that as, the national political environment has become more volatile, over the past couple of years, the use or threat of government shutdowns has become more common and they have become more prolonged.
[04:19.4]
What this means for businesses and organizations is that they should plan for the continued disruption of national infrastructure. If a funding proposal for ICE is found and agreed upon in the next couple of weeks, this would end the current shutdown and business would, resume as normal.
[04:41.6]
However, in terms of TSA disruption, this may take a while to normalize, as the agency saw. Hundreds of agents, quit during the current shutdown.
[04:57.6]
And also the presence of ICE at the airports is likely to continue until the situation normalizes, and this in and of itself may generate some controversy. So I would say what I say at the end of all of these videos, which is that businesses and organizations should hope for the best, but plan for the worst.
[05:19.1]
This means that even if the current situation is resolved, businesses and organizations should move forward on the assumption that further disruption to national infrastructure or government funding is subject to short term change and disruption.
