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Air travelers are experiencing the highest wait times ever under the Transportation Security Administration, the agency\u2019s acting head told Congress on Wednesday, as\u00a0the latest offer<\/a>\u00a0to end a funding impasse and put restraints on President Donald Trump\u2019s mass deportation agenda met fierce resistance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The TSA\u2019s Ha Nguyen McNeill described the\u00a0mounting hardships<\/a>\u00a0facing unpaid airport workers \u2014 piling up bills and eviction notices, even plasma donations to make ends meet \u2014 and warned that lawmakers must ensure \u201cthis never happens again.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a dire situation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Yet on the 40th day of the standoff involving the Department of Homeland Security, there was no easy way out in sight. Neither Republican senators, who made the latest offer, nor Democrats, who are demanding more changes in\u00a0immigration enforcement<\/a>, appeared closer to a compromise.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Trump, who initially appeared to have given his nod to the deal, has declined to lend it his full support or put his political weight behind making sure it is approved.<\/p>\n Top officials at agencies under the DHS umbrella spoke at a hearing of the House Homeland Security Committee about the potential risks of security lapses unless the partial government shutdown comes to an end.<\/p>\n DHS has gone without routine funding since mid-February. Democrats are insisting on changes to the Trump administration\u2019s immigration enforcement and mass deportation operations after the killings of two citizens in Minneapolis by federal officers during protests.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nA deal teeters on collapse<\/h2>\n