WASHINGTON (AP) — The Transportation Security Administration may have to shut down operations at some airports if the budget impasse drags on, the agency’s acting head said Wednesday, even as record wait time for travelers did little to end the standoff over the funding fight in Congress.

The TSA’s Ha Nguyen McNeill described the mounting hardships facing unpaid airport workers — piling up bills and eviction notices, even plasma donations to make ends meet — and warned that lawmakers must ensure “this never happens again.”

“This is a dire situation,” she testified at a House hearing, warning of potential airport closures. “At this point, we have to look at all options on the table. And that does require us to, at some point, make very difficult choices as to which airports we might try to keep open and which ones we might have to shut down as our callout rates increase.”

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 countered by reiterating their demands for changes to President Donald Trump ‘s immigration enforcement operations, appeared closer to a compromise.

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.

Top officials at agencies under the DHS umbrella spoke for more than three-hours before the House Homeland Security Committee about the potential risks of security lapses unless the partial government shutdown comes to an end.

A deal teeters on collapse

DHS has gone without routine funding since mid-February. Democrats are insisting on changes to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement and mass deportation operations after the killings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis by federal officers during protests.

The latest GOP proposal would fund most of DHS except for the enforcement and removal operations of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that have been central to the debate. The plan would provide money for other aspects of ICE as well as Customs and Border Protection.

While the offer added some new restraints on immigration officers, including the use of body cameras, it excluded other policies that Democrats have demanded, such as requirements that federal agents wear identification and refrain from conducting raids around schools, churches or other sensitive places.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said they needed to see real changes. “We’ve been talking about ICE reforms from day one,” he said.

Republican leaders said Democrats are putting the country at risk.

“They know this is crazy,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

But conservative Republicans also panned the proposal, demanding full funding for immigration operations and skeptical of the promise from GOP leaders that they would address Trump’s proof-of-citizenship voting bill in a subsequent legislative package.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said late Wednesday that if Democrats put a “more realistic offer on the table, we’ll be back in business.”

Airport lines grow as TSA workers endure hardships

McNeill, the acting TSA administrator, told lawmakers that multiple airports are experiencing greater than 40% callout rates and more than 480 transportation security officers have now quit during the shutdown.

She cited the growing financial strain on the TSA workforce.

“Some are sleeping in their cars, selling their blood and plasma, and taking on second jobs to make ends meet, all while being expected to perform at the highest level when in uniform to protect the traveling public,” she said.

McNeil also said TSA officers working at the nation’s airports have experienced a more than 500% increase in the frequency of assaults since the shutdown began.

“This is unacceptable and it will not be tolerated,” McNeill said.

The top executive overseeing Houston’s airport said security lines that have travelers waiting four hours or more could get longer if the political impasse was not soon settled.

Lines that twist and turn across multiple floors at George Bush Intercontinental Airport have been the result of TSA only being able to staff one-third to one-half the usual number of checkpoint lines, said Jim Szczesniak, aviation director for Houston’s airport system.

Trump’s decision to send ICE agents to the airports risks inflaming the situation, lawmakers have said. Video footage of federal officers detaining a crying woman at San Francisco International Airport drew outrage Monday from local officials, although it was unrelated to Trump’s order to deploy immigration officers.

FEMA also at risk

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund is “rapidly depleting,” Victoria Barton, a FEMA external affairs official, told lawmakers.

FEMA is able to continue its disaster response and recovery work as long as that fund has money, and about 10,000 of its disaster workers continue being paid through it.

NEW YORK (AP) — It took less than a minute for a routine landing to spiral into a deadly crash Sunday at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. But the collision between an Air Canada flight and a fire truck crossing the runway was the culmination of a series of events that began much earlier.

The Associated Press created this timeline based on a review of air traffic control recordings and information from the Federal Aviation Administration, publicly available flight tracking data and the National Transportation Safety Board, including information it obtained from the jet’s cockpit voice recorder.

A late departure from Montreal

10:12 p.m.: Air Canada Express Flight 8646, operated by Jazz Aviation, leaves Montréal–Trudeau International Airport, two hours and 13 minutes late. By the time the aircraft reaches New York, it is part of an influx of late-arriving flights, including some waiting extended periods for a gate.

Issues on the ground at LaGuardia

11:16:42 p.m.: A United aircraft, Flight 2384, aborts takeoff for a second time because of an anti-ice warning light in the cockpit.

11:20:48 p.m.: “We have an odor on the plane as well here at this time,” the United pilot reports. “We are going to be going back to the gate, request fire as well,” using shorthand for the airport’s fire rescue team.

11:21:12 p.m.: Another pilot chimes in: “If that’s a sewer smell … we smelled that too going around the terminal there.”

11:22:24 p.m.: A controller asks the United pilot if it is a smoke odor. He responds: “No, it was a weird odor. I don’t know exactly how to describe it,” and says he can’t get ahold of anyone to obtain a gate assignment.

11:24:49 p.m.: The controller confirms there is no gate available. He asks the pilot, “Do you still need us to send fire there?” The pilot says yes, citing the odor.

11:27:44 p.m.: United 2384’s pilot tells the controller he doesn’t plan on evacuating the plane. The controller instructs the pilot to move to another taxiway.

11:29:54 p.m.: United 2384 makes a wrong turn and ends up in a different part of the taxiway, but the controller doesn’t sound concerned. “You can just stay over there … and we’ll have the guys go over there,” he says.

11:31:41 p.m.: United 2384 declares an emergency. The pilot says: “The flight attendants in the back are feeling ill because of the odor. We will need to go into any available gate at this time.”

11:31:59 p.m.: The controller asks again if there’s an available gate, telling the person he’s speaking with, “now they’re declaring an emergency. They want to get out.”

11:33:39 p.m.: The controller tells United 2384 there is still no open gate, but fire trucks are headed over with a stair truck if they want to evacuate. “Let me know if you do,” he says.

Flight 8646 is cleared to land

11:34:18 p.m.: In a routine step near the end of a flight, the air traffic controller handling approaches into LaGuardia instructs the pilots of Air Canada Express Flight 8646 pilots to contact the airport’s control tower, which will guide them the rest of the way.

11:35:08 p.m.: Flight 8646 is cleared to land on Runway 4/22.

Fire truck is cleared to cross

11:36:45 p.m.: At the airport, a controller asks: “Is there a vehicle that needed to cross the runway?”

11:37:00 p.m.: “Truck 1 and company, LaGuardia Tower, requesting to cross 4 at Delta,” the firefighter says, meaning he is requesting clearance to use Taxiway D to cross Runway 4 — the same runway where Flight 8646 is about to land.

11:37:05 p.m.: “Truck 1 and company cross 4 at Delta,” the controller says, authorizing the truck and other emergency vehicles to cross Runway 4. Simultaneously, on a different frequency, the pilot on the odor-stricken United flight reports that his plane has finally been cleared to go to a gate.

11:37:08 p.m.: “Truck 1 and company crossing 4 at Delta,” a firefighter in Truck 1 repeats, confirming that the controller has cleared the vehicle to cross.

11:37:11 p.m.: An electronic call out in Flight 8646’s cockpit indicates the plane is 50 feet above the ground.

11:37:12 p.m.: A controller tells the pilot of an outbound Frontier Airlines flight to stop on a taxiway.

Flight 8646 lands and collides with the fire truck

11:37:15 p.m.: “Sorry, Truck 1,” a controller says as Flight 8646 bears down on Runway 4/22.

11:37:16 p.m.: A controller then frantically tells the fire crew: “Stop. Stop Stop. Stop. Truck 1. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop.”

11:37:17 p.m.: Flight 8646’s cockpit voice recorder captures a sound that investigators say is consistent with the plane’s landing gear touching down..

11:37:19 p.m.: Flight 8646’s first officer, who was flying the plane, transfers control to the captain.

11:37:20 p.m.: The controller continues, “Stop Truck 1. Stop. Stop Truck 1. Stop.” As he speaks, an alarm begins to beep.

11:37:25 p.m.: Flight 8646 slams into the fire truck. The cockpit voice recording stops.

Aftermath

11:37:45 p.m.: A controller tells the pilot of the next plane set to land to “go around,” meaning he should keep flying instead of landing.

The controller then tries to raise the pilots of Flight 8646. “I see you collided with a vehicle there. Just hold position. I know you can’t move. Vehicles are responding to you now.” Other rescue vehicles race to the crash site.

11:55:37 p.m.: The pilot of another plane tells a controller: “That wasn’t good to watch.” The controller responds: “Yeah, I know. I was here … We were dealing with an emergency earlier. I messed up.” The pilot says: “Nah, man, you did the best you could.”

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A civil jury in California found Monday that Bill Cosby was liable for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman in 1972 and awarded her $59.25 million.

After a nearly two-week trial in Santa Monica, jurors found Cosby, 88, liable for the sexual battery and assault of Donna Motsinger. They awarded her $17.5 million in past damages and $1.75 million for future damages, including “mental suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, inconvenience, grief, anxiety, humiliation, and emotional distress.”

Then in a second phase of the trial Monday afternoon, they awarded an additional $40 million in punitive damages.

Cosby’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, said in an email after the initial award earlier Monday that they are disappointed and fully intend to appeal the verdict. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the punitive damages.

Deliberations lasted about two days.

The decision came nearly five years after Cosby was freed from prison in Pennsylvania when the state Supreme Court threw out a criminal conviction based on similar allegations. He has settled some similar lawsuits and has been ordered to pay in others, but Monday’s award is likely the most he has had to pay in a case.

“This verdict is not just about me – it’s about finally being heard and holding Mr. Cosby accountable,” Motsinger said in a statement. “I have carried the weight of what happened to me for more than 50 years. It never goes away. Today, a jury saw the truth and held him accountable. That means everything. I hope this gives strength to other survivors who are still waiting for their moment to be heard.”

Motsinger had been a server at a restaurant in Sausalito near San Francisco who said in her lawsuit, filed in 2023, that Cosby had invited her to his stand-up comedy show at a theater in nearby San Carlos. Both were in their 30s at the time. She said Cosby gave her wine and two pills that she believed were aspirin, and that she was going in and out of consciousness as two men put her in a limousine.

“She woke up in her house with all her clothes off, except her underwear on – no top, no bra, and no pants,” the lawsuit said. “She knew she had been drugged and raped by Bill Cosby.”

In court filings, Cosby’s lawyers argued that the allegations rested almost entirely on speculation and assumption, saying Motsinger “freely admits that she has no idea what happened.”

Motsinger’s lawsuit moved with surprising quickness through the California courts, taking just 2 1/2 years from filing until verdict while other lawsuits against him stalled.

“We are grateful to the jury for their careful attention to the evidence and to Ms. Motsinger for the extraordinary courage it took to come forward,” said Jesse Creed, one of her attorneys from the Panish Shea Ravipudi law firm that represented her.

Cosby did not testify at the trial, whose witnesses included Andrea Constand, the Temple University sports administrator he was convicted of sexually assaulting in a Pennsylvania criminal court in 2018. The state’s Supreme Court threw out the verdict and Cosby was freed from prison after serving nearly three years of a three- to 10-year sentence.

Motsinger first made her allegations anonymously in a 2005 lawsuit filed by Constand.

The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly and consent to be named, as Constand and Motsinger have.

In 2022, a jury in Santa Monica awarded $500,000 to a woman who said Cosby sexually assaulted her at the Playboy Mansion when she was a teenager in 1975.

Motsinger’s lawsuit echoed allegations of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment made by at least 60 women against Cosby, all of which he has denied.

The former stand-up comedy and television superstar once widely known as “America’s Dad” became the first celebrity tried and convicted in the #MeToo era before his conviction was permanently thrown out when appeals court found he gave incriminating testimony in a deposition only after believing he had immunity from prosecution.