The chairman of the U.S. House Homeland Security committee has asked the Trump administration how it is ensuring adequate staff at airports as some transportation employees fail to show up for work due to a partial U.S. government shutdown. Representative Bennie Thompson, a Democrat, also asked the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for the exact number of employees who are calling in sick and if the agency has a contingency plan for future mass absences or resignations of its screeners. More than 50,000 TSA officers are working without pay during the shutdown that began Dec. 22.
