"A breaking point" — Inside the 68-day DHS shutdown

Politics "A breaking point" — Inside the 68-day DHS shutdown By Nicole Sganga Nicole Sganga Homeland Security and Justice Correspondent Nicole Sganga is CBS News' homeland security and justice correspondent. She is based in Washington, D.C., and reports for all shows and platforms. Read Full Bio Nicole Sganga April 22, 2026 / 6:33 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google 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 economyInside 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 poi...