How Houston’s airports became the face of TSA funding woes

Summary

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Apple News Today: How Houston’s airports became the face of TSA funding woes

Date: March 27, 2026
Host: Cecilia Ley and Gideon Resnick
Notable Guest: Juan Lisano (Associated Press, Houston), Jeff Ernsthausen (ProPublica data reporter)

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Episode Overview

This episode examines the ongoing crisis in U.S. airport security—specifically focusing on Houston’s airports—as a lens to discuss nationwide TSA funding deficits, operational chaos due to government shutdowns, and the broader political and logistical ramifications. Key updates on U.S.-Iran diplomatic tensions, immigration policy impacts, and landmark sports and historical events are discussed in later segments.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Senate Funding Deal and TSA Crisis

• TSA worker funding woes: The Senate reached an agreement to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), excluding immigration enforcement, after a record-long partial government shutdown. A House vote is expected soon ([00:38]).
• President Trump’s Intervention: President Trump announced potential executive action to pay TSA workers immediately, though legal authority and funding sources remained unclear ([01:12]).
  • Quote: "We're not going to let the Democrats get away with this stuff and people are wise to them. So they need to end the shutdown immediately or we'll have to take some very drastic measures." — President Trump ([01:12])
• Short-term solutions and ongoing pain: Congressional leaders presented the executive order as a temporary fix; ground realities for TSA staff and travelers remain dire.
  • Senate Majority Leader John Thune: Praised Trump's action as short-term.
  • House Dem Leader Hakeem Jeffries: Criticized the delayed response ([01:24]).

2. Houston: Epicenter of Airport Chaos

• Why Houston?
  • Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental and Hobby airports have become the main flashpoints for travel disruptions.
  • Overworked staff, high absenteeism, and extraordinary passenger volume have turned Houston into the national face of TSA dysfunction ([00:17], [02:27], [03:00]).
    • Quote: "Houston airport system has... been dispatching other employees like IT employees, custodial employees, office workers to help out with the line." — Juan Lisano ([02:27])
• High attrition and absenteeism among TSA agents:
  • Nearly 500 TSA agents quit nationally since the shutdown began in February ([02:44]).
  • Bush Intercontinental had a 40% call-out rate; Hobby Airport 43%—highest in the country ([03:00]).
• Contributing factors:
  • High cost of living, long commutes, and Houston’s status as a United hub causing downstream impacts ([03:12]).
  • Special events adding stress: Rodeo Houston (2M+ visitors), World Baseball Classic, and a global energy conference this week ([03:54]).
    • Quote: "We had the rodeo here in Houston, which had over 2 million visitors..." — Juan Lisano ([03:54])
  • Quote: “Last time we went three and a half paychecks without a pay, and this weekend will equivalently be our third missed paycheck.” — TSA union spokesperson ([03:40])

3. International and Economic Headlines

• U.S.-Iran Tensions:
  • Trump threatens military action over the Strait of Hormuz but leaves room for a deal. Deadline for Iranian negotiation extended to April 6 ([04:32]–[06:15]).
    • Quote: "They are begging to make a deal. We'll see if we can make the right deal..." — President Trump ([04:55])
  • Iran’s counter-demands include an end to hostilities, non-aggression assurances, and reparations. Both sides remain far apart ([06:15]).
  • The global economy reels: U.S. inflation up, gas prices rising, European experts warn recovery could take years ([06:15]).
    • Quote: “Most people are actually talking about years.” — Christine Lagarde, European Central Bank ([06:15])
• Trump’s Immigration Enforcement:
  • ProPublica reporter Jeff Ernsthausen discusses new findings: Arrests/detentions of parents of U.S. citizen children have more than doubled under Trump’s second term ([08:43]).
    • Quote: “Trump is detaining and arresting these parents about twice the rate as Biden did. ...moms of US Citizen kids at about four times the rate Biden did.” ([09:02])
  • Personal stories highlight the human impact, including family separations and logistical challenges faced by mixed-status families ([09:25]–[10:00]).
  • ProPublica found the word "humane" stripped from guidelines on the arrest of immigrant parents ([10:53]).
    • Quote: “If families want to avoid this, they should self deport.” — DHS response ([10:53])

4. Other News Highlights

• Maduro Court Proceedings: U.S. judge allows drug trafficking case to proceed despite defense funding dispute ([11:06]).
• New Olympic Policy: The IOC announces only biological women will compete in female events, citing safety and fairness, and will implement gene screening ([11:30]).
  • Quote: "It would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category..." — Christy Coventry, IOC President ([11:36])
• Historic Locomotive Tour: Union Pacific’s “Big Boy” No. 4014 embarks on a 250th-anniversary cross-country trip ([12:14]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• President Trump on shutdown and Iran:

  • “We're not going to let the Democrats get away with this stuff...” ([01:12])
  • “They are begging to make a deal. We'll see if we can make the right deal..." ([04:55])

• Juan Lisano on Houston’s airport chaos:

  • “Houston airport system ... has been dispatching other employees like IT employees, custodial employees, office workers to help out with the line.” ([02:27])
  • “We had the rodeo here... over 2 million visitors...” ([03:54])

• TSA Union on hardship:

  • “Last time we went three and a half paychecks without a pay, and this weekend will equivalently be our third missed paycheck.” ([03:40])

• On immigration enforcement:

  • “Trump is detaining and arresting these parents about twice the rate as Biden did...” — Jeff Ernsthausen ([09:02])
  • “If families want to avoid this, they should self deport.” — DHS ([10:53])

• IOC on biological eligibility:

  • "It would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category..." — Christy Coventry ([11:36])

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:04: Episode opens with TSA funding crisis, Senate deal, and introduction.
• 00:38–01:49: Details on shutdown, Senate and White House actions.
• 02:27: Firsthand reporting on Houston airport chaos (Juan Lisano).
• 03:00–03:54: TSA absentee rates and local stressors in Houston.
• 04:32–06:15: U.S.-Iran diplomatic standoff and economic/inflation implications.
• 08:43–10:53: Data findings and stories on immigration enforcement and family separations.
• 11:06: Maduro drug case and defense funding.
• 11:30: IOC biological eligibility policy.
• 12:14: “Big Boy” steam locomotive cross-country tour.

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Episode Tone & Style

The reporting combines urgency around government inefficiency with compassionate human-interest angles, especially regarding TSA workers and families disrupted by immigration enforcement. The tone is factual, brisk, and engaging, using authoritative updates from experts and journalists on the ground.

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This summary provides a comprehensive guide to the episode’s most important topics and discussions. Anyone who hasn’t listened will understand the scope of airport and travel woes in Houston, the national context of shutdown politics, and receive key updates on current affairs, all in the original tone and style of the episode.

Transcript

[Gideon Resnick]

Good morning. The Senate reaches a deal to fund DHS after President Trump announced a separate plan for TSA workers. The Associated Press talks to us from Texas and explains what it's like at one of the country's busiest airports.

[Juan Lisano]

Houston specifically has become sort of the symbol of the problems with security and travel woes around the country.

[Cecilia Ley]

The White House says progress is being made in Iran, but economic indicators are going the other way. And to mark the nation's birthday, the world's largest steam train is crossing the U.S. it's Friday, March 27th. I'm Cecilia Ley.

[Gideon Resnick]

And I'm Gideon Resnick. This is Apple News Today. In the early hours of Friday morning, the Senate agreed to fund most of DHS without immigration enforcement after a weeks long partial shutdown that had become the longest in history. The bill must still be passed by the House, but the expectation is that that will happen later Friday. Pressure had been building as lines spiraled at airport terminals across the country and TSA officers haven't been paid in over five weeks. At a Cabinet meeting yesterday, President Trump pledged to act if no deal was reached.

[President Donald Trump]

We're not going to let the Democrats get away with this stuff and people are wise to them. So they need to end the shutdown immediately or we'll have to take some very drastic measures.

[Gideon Resnick]

Before the Senate passed the funding bill, President Trump said that he would sign an executive order to pay TSA workers immediately. He said he was using his authorities under the law, but it wasn't clear what legal powers he was referring to or where the money was being directed from. Senate Majority Leader John Thune praised the president but described it as a short term solution. Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that Trump should have announced this weeks ago. The situation had been getting painful on the ground and that's unlikely to change immediately today, even if TSA payments are issued. The acting TSA had told Congress this week that wait times at airports were the highest that they've ever been in the agency's history. But some airports are worse than others. You might have seen some viral videos of chaotic airport scenes, and many of those are coming from Texas. At one point on Wednesday, it took four or more hours to get through security at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport. It got so bad at one point that TSA agents from other airports in the state were deployed there to help. Juan Lisano is an AP reporter in Houston who set a front row seat to this week's chaos.

[Juan Lisano]

Houston airport system has their director said that they have been dispatching other employees like it employees, custodial employees, office workers to help out with the line. So they've been using those employees to help out with long security lines at the airports.

[Gideon Resnick]

Almost 500 TSA agents have quit since this partial shutdown began in February, but Houston has been a significant chokepoint. Lasana reports that on Tuesday, for example, 11% of TSA workers nationally did not show up for work. But at the Houston airport, that number was much higher.

[Juan Lisano]

I know. On Tuesday, the TSA reported that the Bush Intercontinental Airport had a call rate of nearly 40% and Hobby, Houston Hobby Airport had 43%, which were the highest rates on that day.

[Gideon Resnick]

Around the country, there are a number of reasons why Houston might be faring so much worse. It's one of the busiest airports in the country and it's a hub for United Airlines, so delays there can create downstream impact for flyers on those planes. There's also the factor of high living costs. Some TSA workers cite long and expensive commutes. Here's a TSA union spokesperson in Texas. Speaking to a CBS affiliate earlier this week, he said this second government shutdown was starting to take its toll. Last time we went three and a

[Jeff Ernsthausen]

half paychecks without a pay, and this weekend will equivalently be our third missed paycheck.

[Gideon Resnick]

On top of all that, March has been an extremely busy month of hosting for Houston.

[Juan Lisano]

We had the rodeo here in Houston, which had over 2 million visitors, and a lot of those people are coming in from out of the metro area. We had the World Baseball Classic earlier in the month with people coming in from around the world coming to Houston for some games. And this week we have Sarah Week, which is a large energy conference which is over 10,000 participants from around the world.

[Gideon Resnick]

It's unclear just how quickly the situation will improve, but getting a funding bill passed is the first step. Cecilia has more news coming up next.

[Cecilia Ley]

It was a deadline that started at 48 hours, then stretched to five days and now another 10. While Trump has moved the goalpost several times, he's still threatening to attack Iran's power plants if the Strait of Hormuz stays closed, but he's still looking for diplomatic progress. Trump said at a Cabinet meeting on Thursday that talks were ongoing despite Iran's claims to the contrary.

[President Donald Trump]

And they'll tell you we're not negotiating. We will not negotiate. Of course they're negotiating. They've been obliterated. Who wouldn't negotiate? They are begging to make a deal. We'll see if we can make the right deal and if they make the right deal, then the strait will open up. Hormuz strait will open up.

[Cecilia Ley]

Trump says his latest deadline came at the request of the Iranians. And if you're keeping track, that's April 6th. This past week, the Trump administration said they sent a 15 point ceasefire plan to Iran via mediators. The details have been kept private, but some reports speculate it includes calls on Iran to dismantle its main nuclear sites, end enrichment of uranium and suspend its ballistic missile work. Trump's Middle east envoy, Steve Witkoff, was at the center of the last round of talks with Iran before the war. At that same cabinet meeting, he said the administration's proposals have been circulated to Iran with the help of Pakistan.

[President Donald Trump]

I can say this. We will see where things lead, and if we can convince Iran that this is the inflection point, with no good alternatives for them other than more death and destruction, we have strong signs that this is a possibility. And if a deal happens, it will be great for the country of Iran, for the entire region and the world at large.

[Cecilia Ley]

Iran is not saying that, at least publicly. In fact, they've rejected those proposals, but they've also delivered their own conditions, which include an end to hostilities, assurances of no future aggression, and war reparations. As for the Strait of Hormuz, an Iranian official told state media it was theirs to control. Bloomberg's Joumana Berseci explained why that could create another wedge. They would like to retain sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, which of course is not acceptable to many Gulf regions and also any nation really around the world. That one country would have this much authority over such an important choke point when it comes to global energy float. In other words, while talks have ramped up this week, the two sides remain very far apart. The situation on the ground hasn't decisively moved either. Yesterday, doubts of any progress was reflected in the markets. There were steep drops in the US And Europe, and they may fall further. Christine Lagarde, the president of the European Central bank, told the Economist magazine yesterday that the markets might still be overly optimistic of a return to normal. The technical experts are telling us in terms of capacity, extraction, refinery distribution, too much has already been damaged and there is no way that it can be restored in a matter of months. Most people are actually talking about years. So far, the US has escaped the worst of the economic pain of the war, as Europe and Asia bear the brunt of Iran's hold on the Strait of Hormuz. But several economic indicators suggest that could be changing. American gas prices continue to rise up 10 cents compared to last week. The national average now sits just shy of $4 a gallon. And yesterday the OECD, a global policy forum, warned that the war will push US inflation 1.2% higher than previously expected. When it comes to immigration, Trump's second term has set itself apart from his first, and the numbers make the case. Arrests have more than doubled, border crossings are way down, and a record number of migrants have had their protected legal statuses revoked. Detentions are up, too, both for people with criminal convictions and those without. A new ProPublica investigation has been looking at one particular slice of Trump's immigration crackdown, cases involving parents of US Born children.

[Jeff Ernsthausen]

What we found is that there were at least 11,000 US citizen kids who had an immigrant parent detained during the first seven months of Trump's second term.

[Cecilia Ley]

Data reporter Jeff Ernsthausen told us about his team's findings. They looked at an ICE data set that included the last three years of President Biden's term through the summer of last year.

[Jeff Ernsthausen]

We found key differences in how they are treating parents of US Citizen children. So Trump is detaining and arresting these parents about twice the rate as Biden did. And the thing that really stood out to us in analyzing this data is how differently mothers of US Citizen children are being treated. So Trump has deported these moms of US Citizen kids at about four times the rate Biden did.

[Cecilia Ley]

Parents without any legal status present complicated challenges for the federal government. Immigration officials can't legally detain children with U.S. citizenship along with their parents or deport them, according to former officials. That leads to family separations, even if only briefly. That's what happened with a woman in Florida named Doris Flores. A local law enforcement incident led to the discovery that she and her fiance had deportation. The Honduran woman was detained and arrested, then separated from her two US Citizen children, a four month old and an eight year old.

[Jeff Ernsthausen]

And so, in the middle of the night, these parents had to suddenly figure out what to do with their kids or they were going to end up in foster care.

[Cecilia Ley]

Ultimately, the parents were deported to Honduras and the family's pastor cared for the children, eventually facilitating travel logistics so that both children could join their parents. Current and former DHS officials told ProPublica that practices like these aren't necessarily violating any policy, and that managing families with different rights is complicated. Federal policy does say, however, that ICE officers should ask people they arrest if they are parents or legal guardians, and if so, they should be allowed to make childcare arrangements. But ProPublica found that some of the wording of these guidelines has changed under the Trump administration. They found, for example, that the word humane was stripped from a preamble that instructed how agents should handle immigrant parents.

[Jeff Ernsthausen]

DHS responded to our reporting, basically emphasizing that they don't arrest U.S. citizens and they more or less said that, you know, if families want to avoid this, they should self deport.

[Cecilia Ley]

A DHS spokesperson also said that ICE does not separate families. Finally, a few other stories were following. Nicolas Maduro was back in a US Court yesterday, a federal judge rejected an attempt to dismiss drug trafficking charges for the ousted Venezuelan president and his wife. Celia Flores. Maduro's lawyer had made the argument that the drug trafficking indictment against them should be thrown out because the US Government was restricting the former first couple's ability to pay for their defense. The judge ruled that the highly anticipated trial would continue, but didn't say if Maduro would be allowed to use funds from the Venice, Venezuelan government. Maduro and his wife were captured in January by US Forces during a nighttime raid. A federal indictment alleges that the former president and other co conspirators has spent decades moving large quantities of cocaine to the U.S. the International Olympic Committee has decided that only biological female athletes will be allowed to compete in female category events at the Olympics, a change that bans transgender athletes. On Thursday, the IOC introduced a gene screening test that will determine eligibility for all athletes. Here's its president, Christy Coventry so it's absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category. In addition, in some sports it would simply not be safe. The new rule will apply for the upcoming 2028 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles and onwards. According to Reuters, the policy is expected to be widely adopted by international sports federations and become a universal rule for competitors in female elite sports. The IOC called the test unintrusive and said it will only be done once in the athlete's career. They added that exceptions would be made for rare sex development disorders. Shortly before the announcement, a coalition of advocacy groups called on the IOC to abandon any plans for genetic screen testing, arguing that it would undermine the commitment to dignity and fairness the IOC claimed to uphold. And this weekend, a legendary train begins a special cross country tour. The largest steam locomotive in the world, known as the Union Pacific's big boy, number 4014, will take off from Wyoming and make its way to the east coast as a special commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the United States. Union Pacific was first formed when President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific railway Act of 1862, which directed the construction of the nation's first transcontinental railroad. 25 Big Boy locomotives were originally built to haul heavy freight during World War II. Number 4014 is the only one still in operation today. Train enthusiasts can catch a glimpse of this Big Boy at its various stops, including in Salt Lake City, Utah Truckee, California Chicago, Illinois and Scranton, Pennsylvania, among others. If you happen to catch a glimpse of this legend, Union Pacific reminds train fans to stay at least 25ft from the track. Find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the news app right now, stick around for the latest episode of Apple News. In Conversation this week, guest host Sam Sanders talked to health scholar Samantha King and sociologist Gavin Weeden about how Americans became obsessed with protein and what we should know about our own intake. People can only eat so much, and so supplementing foods with protein and making claims about the health benefits of that and being able to charge more for that is a way to get people to spend more on food than they otherwise would. If you're listening in the podcast app, you can follow Apple News and Conversation to find that episode or come back to the Apple News Today feed tomorrow. All new episodes of In Conversation will be available there on Saturdays, too. Enjoy the weekend, and I'll be back with the news on Monday.