2026-04-22T18:33:00-0400 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
过去几周，哥伦比亚广播公司新闻采访了约24名国土安全部工作人员，包括职业文职人员、现役制服人员和一线员工，探讨了这场已持续68天的部分政府停摆给机构带来的压力。他们的岗位各不相同，但态度惊人一致：他们感觉被遗忘了，不仅被国会遗忘，还被他们认为几乎不了解国土安全部如何融入美国人日常生活的政治体系所遗忘。
这就是当联邦政府规模最大、任务最关键的机构之一被要求停止运作、停摆等待时会发生的情况。
“我们的工作只有在出问题时才会被人看见，”一名员工说道。“而现在，我们已经到达了临界点。”
回形针经济
在国土安全部总部内，停摆催生了几十年来未见的官僚式临时变通办法。
Adobe软件及其他订阅服务已过期，迫使员工采取一名官员所称的“独特且滑稽复杂的权宜之计”。一些办公室已经用完了回形针。其他办公室则在重复使用打印纸，将旧文件翻面，用空白面再次打印。公共事务办公室只能使用带三孔的纸张，因为这是储物间里仅剩的库存。
在其他地方，员工们在走廊里四处寻找硒鼓和墨水。订书钉已经成了稀缺商品。在一个本应应对灾难性威胁的部门里，员工们沦落到要靠物物交换来获取办公用品。
这听起来可能微不足道，但国土安全部员工指出，办公用品的困境进一步打击了这个严重依赖合同、订阅服务和后勤保障的部门的士气。一旦资金中断，这一基础设施不会缓慢退化——而是会迅速瓦解。
国土安全部发言人的说法更为直白，他指出，从网络安全公司到卫生纸供应商，就连基本供应商现在都必须赌一把，看自己最终能否拿到货款。发言人表示，其结果是，该部门“被拉扯到了临界点”。
“无偿工作”的代价
对于国土安全部的26万名员工中的大多数来说，停摆最直接的影响是财务方面的——但并不总是以显而易见的方式。
政府旅行信用卡是开展检查、安保随行等各项工作的必备工具，但在拨款中断期间无法使用。许多卡的逾期时间已经超过60天。员工们因无法在获得报销前还款，眼睁睁看着自己的个人信用评分因此受损。
在运输安全管理局，数字令人震惊：一线官员每月累计产生的旅行相关费用超过500万美元，用于保障机场安全。
对于美国特勤局的特工来说，负担甚至更为私人化。总统安保随行团队中的一些人自掏腰包支付了安保任务相关的差旅费，已经两个月没有拿到报销款了。
在全国一些机场出现4小时的安检长队后，总统在3月下旬发布指令，确保包括运输安全管理局官员在内的国土安全部员工能够拿到补发工资，这带来了一些缓解。自那以来，运输安全管理局一线员工的缺勤率下降了45%，但国土安全部部长马克韦恩·马伦周二表示，每月两次用于支付国土安全部员工16亿美元工资的资金将在5月第一周耗尽。
运输安全管理局： workforce在撤退
人员伤亡最直观的地方莫过于运输安全管理局的安检点。
在本次停摆期间，已有超过780名官员辞职。官员们担心这一数字可能会上升，呼应了2025年上次停摆期间近1100名官员离职的情况。对于一支近5万人的队伍来说，这将对招聘和留用产生长期影响。
停摆初期，由于官员们在没有可靠工资的情况下难以负担汽油、育儿和房租，缺勤率飙升。尽管在部分薪酬措施出台后出勤情况有所改善，但对士气和机构信任的损害依然存在。
除了员工工资，没有拨款的情况下，运输安全管理局官员表示，该机构无法投资下一代安检技术，这引发了人们对即将到来的重大活动准备情况的担忧：2026年夏季旅游季、国际足联世界杯以及美国建国250周年庆典。
联邦紧急事务管理局：在“危险区”边缘运作
理论上，联邦紧急事务管理局仍在运作。灾难幸存者仍在获得援助，响应行动仍在推进。但在幕后，该机构正在悄悄消耗其未来的储备。
每周约有4.5万名应急人员——消防员、急诊医疗技术员和其他人员——因国家消防学院和国内准备中心的课程被无限期推迟而错过应急培训。
联邦紧急事务管理局还缺席了飓风季前的关键国家协调活动，包括全国飓风会议和全国应急管理协会年中论坛。这些活动在应急管理圈外往往被忽视，但正是在这里，灾难发生前会完善计划、建立合作关系。
与此同时，国土安全部官员表示，国家洪水保险计划的运作受到严重限制，延误了保单续签，并扰乱了洪水易发地区的房地产市场。
但最令人担忧的事态发展发生在联邦紧急事务管理局的核心资金机制：救灾基金。目前仅剩余34亿美元，该机构即将达到所谓的“即时需求资金”阈值。在即时需求资金机制下，联邦紧急事务管理局将支出限制在救生行动范围内，停止更广泛的恢复和减灾工作。
这一计算的核心是救灾基金，即联邦紧急事务管理局应对重大灾难的主要账户。官员们表示，截至本周，该基金约有34亿美元——刚略高于触发所谓“即时需求资金”（INF）的30亿美元阈值。
这一阈值并非随意设定。它的校准参考了应对一场重大灾难性灾难的平均成本——规模相当于2024年海伦飓风那样的事件。实际上，这意味着废墟清理、紧急防护措施和关键基础设施修复——比如恢复供水系统——将继续进行。但减灾项目、长期重建和大部分公共援助资金将放缓或完全停止。公园不会重建，基础设施项目将停滞，向各州的报销——有时是针对已完成的工作——将被无限期推迟。
而且，联邦紧急事务管理局甚至在触发即时需求资金阈值之前就已经在做出这些决定了。
官员们形容，随着该机构接近阈值，支出正被悄悄缩减。数十亿美元的未偿报销款——包括新冠疫情时期的援助，其中大部分欠付给医院——仍未支付，不是因为它们不符合资格，而是因为过快发放这些资金可能会耗尽整个账户。
“从技术上讲，我们可以在一夜之间耗尽救灾基金，”一名官员承认。“所以我们非常谨慎。”
这种谨慎正在与时间赛跑。飓风季将于6月1日开始。
“如果我们在进入飓风季时低于这一阈值，”一名联邦紧急事务管理局官员表示，“我们将让美国公民面临极端风险。”
让这一时刻前所未有的不仅是资金水平——还有其背景。自2001年以来，联邦紧急事务管理局约有10次进入即时需求资金状态。但它从未在拨款中断期间进入过这一状态。
隐性危机
在国土安全部的情报部门，官员们表示，人们对国际足联世界杯的安保准备工作的担忧正在悄然加剧——尤其是随着停摆持续，人员配置、连续性和招聘都受到侵蚀。情报与分析办公室的一名官员形容，该机构的运作能力约为80%，员工每周轮流休假——这甚至扰乱了常规的信息共享，在协调工作中留下了关键缺口。
这名官员表示，更大的风险是累积效应：世界杯主办城市的外勤情报职位空缺仍未填补，新员工无法入职，过度劳累的人员面临越来越严重的倦怠——所有这些都可能使这场大规模全球活动所需的复杂审查和威胁评估任务复杂化。
“这绝不是实现最佳绩效的良方，”这名官员说。
在网络安全与基础设施安全局，停摆在一个特别敏感的时刻削弱了机构能力。
超过一半的员工被休假。代理局长尼克·安德森作证说，工作人员数量已降至约40%，严重限制了该机构监控威胁和开展外联的能力。安德森指出，国家行为体——中国、俄罗斯、伊朗和朝鲜——仍在探测美国基础设施，经常利用互联网连接系统的默认密码等基本漏洞。
网络安全与基础设施安全局设法维持了核心防御行动，包括与情报和执法伙伴的协调。但更广泛的生态系统——预防性外联、主动风险缓解——已被削减。
对于海岸警卫队来说，已累计欠下500多笔未付的水电费，威胁到海岸警卫队站点的电力和供水服务。与此同时，1.8万份商船海员证书的积压已经形成，延误了对海上航运至关重要的工人的认证。
特勤局正面临异常艰巨的未来任务：总统竞选周期、国际足联世界杯以及2028年奥运会，据多名国土安全部和特勤局官员透露，停摆已迫使所有媒体培训课程暂停，并减缓了行动准备工作。
本月早些时候在国会作证时，特勤局局长肖恩·柯兰表示，供应链问题和资金限制使保护技术现代化的努力复杂化，尽管该机构正在大力投资，以应对无人机袭击等新兴威胁。
国会山的僵局
在国会山，议员们仍陷入熟悉的僵局——马伦和国会领导人表示，最有可能通过一项更窄范围的和解法案来解决。该法案将为国土安全部资金中更具政治争议的部分——包括美国海关和边境保护局以及美国移民和海关执法局——提供未来三年的拨款。
这种结果将恢复对边境和移民执法优先事项的 funding，同时避开民主党议员在洛杉矶、芝加哥和明尼阿波利斯等城市实施全面移民执法行动后数月来倡导的所有结构性改革。民主党曾寻求结束巡逻队流动、禁止移民和海关执法局特工进入某些场所；制定移民执法特工的使用武力准则；以及要求特工不戴口罩、佩戴随身摄像头。
与此同时，该部门的其他部门只能等待。
国土安全部员工群体的被忽视感因停摆的不均衡影响而加剧。虽然更具政治敏感性的部门——尤其是海关和边境保护局以及移民和海关执法局——通过《“一个伟大而美好的法案”》等立法获得了不间断的资金支持，但争议性较小、基本无党派的机构如联邦紧急事务管理局和网络安全与基础设施安全局却不得不承受两个多月拨款中断的全部冲击。
对许多员工来说，财务损失与业务损失一样具有破坏性。在本财年，那些未被豁免停摆影响的国土安全部员工按时拿到工资的次数，比没拿到的次数还要少。
“你不会要求任何其他行业的人接受这种情况，”另一名国土安全部员工说。“但不知何故，在我们国家国土安全机构的队伍中，这却成了常态。”
“A breaking point”: Inside the 68-day DHS shutdown
2026-04-22T18:33:00-0400 / CBS News
Over the past several weeks, CBS News has spoken with roughly two dozen Department of Homeland Security personnel spanning career civil servants, uniformed personnel and frontline staff about the institutional strain caused by the partial government shutdown, now in its 68th day. Their roles differ, but the sentiment is strikingly consistent: 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.
This is what happens when one of the federal government’s most sprawling and mission-critical agencies is told to stop working, to go without and to simply wait.
“What we do only becomes visible when something breaks,” one employee said. “And right now, we’ve reached a breaking point.”
The paper clip economy
Inside DHS headquarters, the shutdown has produced a kind of bureaucratic improvisation not seen in decades.
Adobe software and other subscriptions have lapsed, forcing employees into what one official described as “unique and humorously complex workarounds.” Some offices have run out of paper clips. Others are reusing printer paper, flipping old documents over to print on the blank side. The Office of Public Affairs has resorted to using only three-hole punched paper because it’s the only stock left in supply closets.
Elsewhere, staff roam hallways in search of toner cartridges and ink. Staples have become a scarce commodity. In a department built to respond to catastrophic threats, employees have been reduced to bartering for office supplies.
It may sound trivial, but DHS employees point out that the office-supply struggle further undermines the morale of a department that leans heavily on contracts, subscriptions, and logistics. When funding stops, that infrastructure doesn’t degrade gracefully — it frays.
A DHS spokesperson framed it more starkly, noting that even basic vendors — from cybersecurity firms to toilet paper suppliers — must now gamble on whether they will ever be paid. The result, the spokesperson said, is a department “being stretched to the breaking point.”
What it costs to go “unpaid”
For most of DHS’ 260,000 employees, the shutdown’s most immediate impact has been financial — but not always in obvious ways.
Government travel credit cards, necessary for everything from inspections to protective details, cannot be processed during the funding lapse. Many are now more than 60 days past due. Employees — unable to make payments without reimbursement — are watching their personal credit scores deteriorate as a result.
At the Transportation Security Administration, the numbers are staggering: frontline officers collectively rack up more than $5 million per month in travel-related charges to keep airports secure.
For agents with the U.S. Secret Service, the burden is even more personal. Some within the president’s protective detail have paid out-of-pocket for travel tied to protective missions — and have gone unreimbursed for two months.
Some relief has come after four-hour security checkpoint waits in some airports nationwide prompted a late-March presidential directive ensuring DHS employees — including TSA officers — receive backpay. Since then, absenteeism among frontline TSA employees has been reduced by 45%, but DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Tuesday that the money used to cover the $1.6 billion in DHS employee payroll twice a month will dry up during the first week of May.
TSA: A workforce in retreat
Nowhere is the human toll more visible than at TSA checkpoints.
More than 780 officers have resigned during this shutdown. Officials fear that number could climb, echoing the previous shutdown in 2025 that drove nearly 1,100 officers to leave the agency. For a workforce of just under 50,000, this will have long-term implications for recruitment and retention.
Absenteeism surged earlier in the shutdown as officers struggled to afford gas, childcare and rent without reliable pay. While attendance has improved following partial compensation measures, the damage to morale and institutional trust lingers.
Beyond workforce payroll, without appropriations, TSA officials say the agency cannot invest in next-generation screening technology, raising concerns about readiness for major upcoming events: the 2026 summer travel season, the FIFA World Cup, and the nation’s 250th anniversary.
FEMA: Governing on the edge of the “danger zone”
On paper, FEMA is still functioning. Disaster survivors continue to receive aid. Response operations move forward. But behind the scenes, the agency is quietly rationing its future.
Every week, approximately 45,000 emergency personnel — firefighters, EMTs and others — miss emergency training because classes at the National Fire Academy and the Center for Domestic Preparedness have been indefinitely postponed.
FEMA has also been absent from key national coordination events ahead of hurricane season including the National Hurricane Conference and National Emergency Management Association Midyear Forum. These gatherings, often overlooked outside emergency management circles, are where plans are refined and relationships forged before disasters strike.
Meanwhile, DHS officials say the National Flood Insurance Program is operating under severe limitations, delaying policy renewals and disrupting real estate markets in flood-prone regions.
But the most alarming development is taking place within FEMA’s core funding mechanism: the Disaster Relief Fund. With only $3.4 billion remaining, the agency is nearing a threshold known as Immediate Needs Funding. Under INF, FEMA restricts spending to lifesaving operations, halting broader recovery and mitigation efforts.
At the center of that calculation is the Disaster Relief Fund, FEMA’s primary account for responding to catastrophes. As of this week, officials say it sits at roughly $3.4 billion — just above the $3 billion threshold that triggers what is known as Immediate Needs Funding, or INF.
That threshold is not arbitrary. It is calibrated to reflect the average cost of responding to a major catastrophic disaster — an event on the scale of a hurricane like Helene in 2024. In practice, that means debris removal, emergency protective measures and critical infrastructure repairs — like restoring water systems — would continue. But hazard mitigation projects, long-term rebuilding and large swaths of public assistance funding would slow or stop altogether. Parks won’t get rebuilt. Infrastructure projects would stall. Reimbursements to states — sometimes for work already completed — would be delayed indefinitely.
And increasingly, FEMA is making those decisions before INF is even triggered.
Officials describe a quiet throttling of spending as the agency approaches the threshold. Billions in outstanding reimbursements — including COVID-era assistance, much of it owed to hospitals — remain unpaid, not because they are ineligible, but because releasing those funds too quickly could drain the account entirely.
“Technically, we could drain the DRF overnight,” one official acknowledged. “So we’re being very deliberate.”
That deliberation is colliding with the calendar. Hurricane season begins June 1.
“If we’re below that threshold heading into hurricane season,” one FEMA official said, “we are putting American citizens at extreme risk.”
What makes this moment unprecedented is not just the funding level — but the context. FEMA has entered Immediate Needs Funding roughly 10 times since 2001. It has never done so during a lapse in appropriations.
Quiet crises
Within DHS’ intelligence arm, officials say concern is quietly building around security preparations for the FIFA World Cup — particularly as the shutdown continues to erode staffing, continuity and hiring. One official in the Office of Intelligence and Analysis described an operation functioning at roughly 80% capacity, with employees rotating in and out of furlough status week to week — disrupting even routine information-sharing and leaving critical gaps in coordination.
The bigger risk, the official said, is cumulative: vacancies in field intelligence positions in World Cup host cities remain unfilled, new hires cannot be onboarded, and overworked personnel face growing burnout — all of which could complicate the complex vetting and threat assessment mission required for a global event of this scale.
“It’s not a recipe for peak performance,” the official said.
At the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the shutdown has hollowed out capacity at a particularly sensitive moment.
More than half the workforce is furloughed. Acting Director Nick Anderson testified that staffing has dropped to roughly 40%, sharply limiting the agency’s ability to monitor threats and conduct outreach. Anderson has pointed out that nation-state actors — China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea — continue probing U.S. infrastructure, often exploiting basic vulnerabilities like default passwords on internet-connected systems.
CISA has managed to maintain core defensive operations, including coordination with intelligence and law enforcement partners. But the broader ecosystem —preventive outreach, proactive risk mitigation — has been curtailed.
For the Coast Guard, more than 500 unpaid utility bills have accumulated, threatening electricity and water service at Coast Guard stations. At the same time, a backlog of 18,000 merchant mariner credentials has built up, delaying the certification of workers essential to maritime commerce.
As the Secret Service looks ahead to an unusually demanding horizon: a presidential campaign cycle, the FIFA World Cup, and the 2028 Olympics, the shutdown has forced the suspension of all media training courses and slowed operational preparations, according to multiple DHS and Secret Service officials.
While testifying on Capitol Hill, earlier this month, Secret Service Director Sean Curran said supply chain issues and funding constraints complicate efforts to modernize protective technology, even as the agency invests heavily to stay ahead of emerging threats like drone-based attacks.
Capitol Hill paralysis
On Capitol Hill, lawmakers remain locked in a familiar standoff — one that Mullin and congressional leaders say is most likely to be resolved in a narrower reconciliation package. That would grant the more politically contentious components of DHS funding — including U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — for the next three years.
Such an outcome would restore funding to border and immigration enforcement priorities while sidestepping all of the structural reforms Democratic lawmakers spent months advocating after sweeping immigration enforcement action in cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis. Democrats sought to end roving patrols and bar ICE agents from entering certain places; a use-of-force code for immigration enforcement agents; and requirements for agents not to wear masks and to don body cameras.
In the meantime, the rest of the department waits.
The sense of invisibility among the ranks of DHS employees has been compounded by the uneven impact of the shutdown. While more politically charged components — particularly CBP and ICE — have seen uninterrupted funding bolstered through legislation like the “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act, less controversial, largely nonpartisan agencies such as FEMA and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have been left to absorb the full force of a more than two-month funding lapse.
For many employees, the financial toll has been as destabilizing as the operational one. Over the past fiscal year, those DHS employees not exempted from shutdown impacts have gone without an on-time paycheck more often than they have received one.
“You wouldn’t ask this of anyone in any other job,” another DHS employee said. “But somehow here, among the ranks of our nation’s homeland security apparatus, it’s status quo.”