TSA staffing shortages are causing long wait times at airports across U.S Airports

YAHOONEWS: Airports across the United States have again been plagued by long lines and extended wait times amid staffing shortages caused by the ongoing partial government shutdown.

Thousands of Transportation Security Administration employees, who have been working without pay since the shutdown began on Feb. 14, have called out of work. Roughly 10% of the TSA’s 50,000 security officers nationwide called out on Monday, according to CBS News. Hundreds have quit. At some major airports, the TSA was missing more than a third of its staff over the weekend. As a result, security checkpoints became overwhelmed, causing significant delays. Those disruptions got even worse in parts of the country that were hit with a major winter storm early this week.

This is the second time in less than six months that TSA employees have gone without pay during a government shutdown. Though they will be made whole when the shutdown finally ends, many are facing severe financial strain as they wait for Congress to reach a resolution.

“Many are coping with eviction notices. Vehicle repossessions, empty refrigerators and overdrawn bank accounts,” Aaron Barker, a representative for the TSA workers’ union in Atlanta, said at a press conference on Monday. “Every available financial option has been exhausted, yet these officers are still coming to work to protect the traveling public, facing disciplinary action if they do not show up to work.”

More than 360 TSA security officers have quit since the shutdown began, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

With Democrats and Republicans still appearing to be miles apart on a deal to end the shutdown, the problems at airports could get even worse. Here’s a rundown of what’s causing the chaos, how it might come to an end and what travelers should do to try to avoid having their trips ruined.

What’s causing the delays?

After working for a month without pay, large numbers of TSA security officers are calling out of work. That’s left the agency without enough staff to efficiently handle the flow of travelers at its security checkpoints.

Why aren’t TSA workers getting paid?

The TSA is one of many agencies inside the Department of Homeland Security. DHS has been shut down for the past month because of an ongoing funding fight over reforms to the Trump administration’s immigration policy. Even though the disagreement has nothing to do with the TSA, its employees are still affected because DHS as a whole doesn’t have money to cover payroll.

Why do they have to work during the shutdown?

A lot of government workers get furloughed during shutdowns, but TSA employees — like almost everyone who works for DHS — do work that’s considered essential to national security. That means they are still expected to work throughout the shutdown but won’t get paid until it’s over.

Why has it taken this long for the shutdown to affect airports?

It has to do with the agency’s pay schedules. For the first few weeks of the shutdown, TSA employees were still receiving their paychecks on time for the work they did before DHS funding lapsed. They got a full paycheck a few days after the shutdown started and a partial check in early March. Last Friday was their first scheduled payday, when they received nothing. Callouts subsequently surged, leading to significant increases in wait times for travelers trying to get through understaffed TSA checkpoints at airports across the country.

Is the TSA on strike?

Officially, no. Airport security staff are in a rare category of workers who are legally prohibited from going on strike or even threatening to go on strike. The current staffing shortages aren’t the result of a coordinated action organized by unions. Instead, TSA employees are making the choice to call out on their own.

How bad will the disruptions get?

There’s no way to know how severe staffing problems might become. But government officials are warning that the situation could become increasingly dire as the shutdown drags on. Adam Stahl, the TSA’s acting deputy administrator, told Fox News on Tuesday that “if this continues, it’s not hyperbole to suggest that we may have to quite literally shut down airports.”

Which political party is stopping the TSA from being funded?

Both of them. Democrats are standing in the way of any bill to fund DHS as a whole unless their immigration reforms are put into place. However, they have proposed bills to reopen all non-immigration agencies within DHS, including TSA. Republicans have rejected those proposals.

How long will the shutdown last?

It’s unclear, but there are very few signs of progress toward a deal at the moment. Democrats and Republicans have remained entrenched in the positions they’ve held since several weeks before the shutdown started. On Monday, the White House released its latest proposal, which includes a list of five changes it’s willing to make to its immigration operation. Sen. Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate, dismissed the administration’s offer, saying it shows that Republicans “haven’t budged” on the most important things Democrats want to see changed.

Will airport chaos help end the shutdown?

Recent history suggests that it might. Air travel delays have been one of the biggest ways that extended shutdowns have affected everyday Americans during past funding lapses. Pressure on lawmakers to find a solution tends to ramp up when the public starts losing patience with long lines at the airport.

Last year’s record-setting 43-day full government shutdown ended five days after the Department of Transportation forced 40 of the country’s busiest airports to reduce air traffic because of critical staffing shortages. In 2019, a handful of air traffic controllers called in sick on the 35th day of a then-record shutdown during President Trump’s first term, throwing air travel on the East Coast into disarray. That shutdown ended just a few hours later.

How is this shutdown different?

The current shutdown is different in important ways, though. It impacts only the TSA and not air traffic controllers. That could mean that travel disruptions don’t get as bad as they have in the past. Also, some of the other things that have frustrated the public during previous shutdowns — like closed national parks or disruptions in food assistance — aren’t a factor this time around because the rest of the government is still open.

What can travelers do to avoid getting caught up in the TSA mess?

There’s no way to guarantee that your trip won’t be affected by the TSA staffing shortage, but there are steps you can take to lower your risk. Signing up for TSA PreCheck can be a game-changer in certain circumstances, though PreCheck lines have not been immune to disruptions. A lot of airports also offer real-time updates on wait times at security checkpoints on their websites, which can help provide a sense of how early you should head to the airport.

The simplest — and least satisfying — advice is to assume things will get messy and plan extra time to account for it.

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