Passengers at a handful of airports this week waited in hours-long security lines as the government shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security dragged on.
Though Transportation Security Administration officers are required by law to work during a lapse in funding, more than usual have been absent after receiving only a partial paycheck during the most recent pay period. TSA officers will miss an entire paycheck this weekend if the shutdown is still in effect then.
No end to the shutdown appeared imminent Wednesday, as the U.S. Senate rejected a bill that would have funded TSA and other agencies in DHS that are not related to immigration enforcement.
In the meantime, TSA officers are not being paid.
Most live paycheck-to-paycheck, said Johnny Jones, the secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 100, which represents TSA agents.
The lack of pay has contributed to absenteeism, Jones added. The union does not condone coordinated “sick-outs,” which are illegal.
But individual officers miss work for one of three reasons during a shutdown, he said: pre-planned time off, legitimate illness or personal emergencies, and those calling in sick but seeking other work to pay bills.
“If you’re normally receiving a paycheck, you wouldn’t have that third group,” he said.
Some of those who are working are going without lunch or making other sacrifices, Jones added. And he said two colleagues were evicted during the most recent shutdown last fall, which lasted for 43 days.
The U.S. war against Iran, which has an estimated price in the billions of dollars in just its first two weeks, has also driven resentment among TSA workers, Jones said.
“One of the things that I’ve heard from the colleagues is that, man, we got plenty of money to go fight wars and bomb Iran, but we can’t pay our own employees,” he said.
Long lines
No exceptionally long wait times were reported Wednesday, but the previous few days saw several examples of snarled security lines.
Security lines topped three hours at Houston’s William P. Hobby International Airport on Monday and Tuesday.
Lines at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport were up to two hours Monday and the airport’s social media drew a direct line to the shutdown.
“Due to impacts from the federal government’s partial shutdown, there continues to be a shortage of TSA workers at the security checkpoint … which is causing longer-than-average lines,” the airport’s X account posted.
Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport also urged passengers to leave extra time to account for factors including “TSA staffing constraints.”
CBS News reported Wednesday that more than 300 TSA agents have left their jobs since the shutdown began. TSA officials did not respond to messages seeking confirmation of that figure.
Senate gridlock
The top Democrat on the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, Washington’s Patty Murray, sought unanimous consent Wednesday for the Senate to approve a bill that would fund all of DHS other than Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, and the secretary’s office.
Sen. Katie Britt, an Alabama Republican who chairs the subcommittee on Homeland Security funding, objected.
Murray’s bill “would effectively defund our law enforcement officers that are charged with keeping Americans safe,” Britt said.
Each party blamed the other for the impasse, which has been unbreachable since the department’s funding lapsed Feb. 14.
Following the January fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by immigration officers in Minneapolis, Democrats are demanding changes to immigration agencies’ conduct as a condition of funding the department.
Republicans have said they are willing to negotiate the issue, but the parties disagree on what to do for the department, which also includes the Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, in the meantime.
Republican leaders sought to pass a short-term continuing resolution to fund the entire department, but Democrats rejected it, saying it would allow the operation of immigration agencies without adding accountability measures.
“Right now, TSA agents are going without pay because Republicans and the White House have decided they would rather shut down all of DHS than pass some very basic reforms to rein in ICE and Border Patrol,” Murray said. “We also want TSA and FEMA funded, but we are not going to be blackmailed into cutting a blank check for ICE to get it done.”
Politics cited
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, of South Dakota, said Democrats have stopped negotiating on DHS funding in a bid to keep the issue alive for the November midterm elections.
“The American people are tired,” he said. “Lines get longer at the airports because TSA isn’t funded. The American people want us to do our jobs. Republicans are at the table. We’re ready to work toward a solution. Democrats have walked away.”
Jones, the AFGE member and TSA officer, declined to say which approach to short-term funding was preferable, but said it was Congress’ job to fund the federal government.
“We all swear the same oath to the same Constitution,” he said. “Now my job function is a little different than theirs, so they need to do theirs so I can do mine.”