Following a more than six-week cutoff, paychecks began flowing again to Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers on Monday after President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday to pay the TSA amid the ongoing partial government shutdown. But airport lines are expected to linger, at least in the short run, and the damage to staffing, morale, and recruiting at the agency responsible for securing airports could have long-term impacts on both the TSA and the traveling public.
“Two extensive government shutdowns within six months have caught TSA’s employees in their crosshairs,” airline industry analyst Henry Harteveldt of Atmosphere Research Group told Afar. “It was never easy for TSA to recruit airport security screeners. I understand that more than 500 TSA employees quit their jobs during this current shutdown. It is an absurdly safe bet that it will be exponentially more difficult for TSA to recruit new employees to backfill those 500 openings, plus any others that may have existed before the shutdown began.”
Indeed, Johnny Jones, a TSA agent and a union official with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), told The Associated Press that “there’s such a tremendous amount of damage that’s been done to the morale of the workforce, and that’s probably permanent.”
President Trump’s executive order to pay TSA comes as Congress continues to debate the broader issues over the controversial policies and practices employed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, which led to the funding lapse for the entire Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which includes TSA; the order does not specify where that money will come from, nor does it give any guarantee it will continue indefinitely.
During the DHS shutdown, ICE agents continued to be paid, thanks to billions of extra enforcement dollars it received from Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
Adding what many saw as insult to injury, the administration last week sent paid ICE agents (who are not trained to work as TSA officers) to the country’s airports to conduct crucial airport screening such as helping check IDs; assist unpaid TSA agents; and try to help ease what in some cases had ballooned into hours-long security lines at airports by keeping lines in order.
“ICE agents are not trained or certified in aviation security,” Everett Kelley, national president of the AFGE union, which represents TSA officers, said in a statement. “TSA officers spend months learning to detect explosives, weapons, and threats specifically designed to evade detection at checkpoints. . . You cannot improvise that.”
Kelley added that TSA agents, who have been “showing up every day, without a paycheck . . . deserve to be paid, not replaced by untrained, armed agents who have shown how dangerous they can be.”
As lapsed paychecks mounted, TSA callout rates climbed to nearly 12 percent nationwide and reached above 55 percent on March 14 at Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport (HOU).
Here’s what to know about the short- and long-term effects of the latest shutdown and how future chaos for travelers and frontline workers can be averted.
How have TSA agents been managing?
Like so many Americans, a lot of TSA workers live paycheck to paycheck. To cover daily living expenses like gas, rent, mortgage, and childcare, many have turned to driving for rideshare apps, among other temporary jobs. At airports around the country, communities have been trying to help with food drives and other donations.
TSA workers “don’t have money for daycare, childcare, gas, food, and many other things as they’ve almost [gone] a full month without a full paycheck, because the last paycheck they received was so small it was almost inconsequential,” Jones said in a post issued by AFGE, the union that represents federal workers.
In Albuquerque, for instance, workers from Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ) held a weekend barbecue for their TSA colleagues, and Albertsons grocery stores brought TSA workers supplies like paper products and soap. Around the country, people have been donating gas and gift cards to help officers and their families make ends meet.
TSA agents earn only about $35,000 a year on average, according to AFGE.
The union noted that to get by, many TSA officers called out sick to work alternate jobs. It reported that “some officers are sleeping at airports or in their cars because they can’t afford the commute to and from work, while others can’t afford to pay their rent.”
Are there still lines to get through security?
Now that paychecks are being promised, how is that affecting airport security line wait times? A check of airport web sites Monday morning indicated TSA wait times at most major airports were about 10 minutes, a dramatic improvement over the past few weeks. But trackers aren’t always accurate, as wait times have swung dramatically during the shutdown, even from one hour to the next.
With spring break travel in full swing, many expect issues to continue for at least a few more weeks. White House border czar Tom Homan said on Face the Nation Sunday that ICE agents will remain stationed at more than a dozen U.S. airports until “airports feel like they’re 100 percent.”
Harteveldt said not to expect an immediate return to normal.
“Instead, I believe we will see a steady increase in TSA workers returning throughout the week,” said Harteveldt. “With the Passover and Easter holidays taking place this week, airports will likely be even busier than usual. I sincerely hope that we see normal, or very close to normal, levels of TSA workers back on the job by Thursday, ahead of the Easter weekend.”
Jones said the problem won’t be fixed until there is a long-term solution.
How can this situation be avoided again?
To end this current crisis, Congress will need to come to an agreement to end the DHS shutdown by passing a budget bill that covers workers at all of the agency’s departments.
But to prevent future chaos—and ensure traveler safety—industry and union officials say we also need legislation that protects frontline workers against being used as political pawns.
For months, the travel industry has been calling on Congress to exempt TSA and other essential workers from pay lapses during shutdowns. Earlier this month, a six-page list of travel industry associations and companies big and small signed a letter to Congress urging passage of several acts that have already been filed, which would guarantee that air traffic controllers and TSA officers are paid regardless of the government’s funding status.
Zane Kerby, president and CEO of the American Society of Travel Agents, said another solution he stands solidly behind is a bill that would stop the pay of Congress during shutdowns. “I love this idea,” he said. “I think it’s the only one that will make a difference.”
Along those lines, Delta Air Lines last week suspended its special services for members of Congress amid the ongoing shutdown.
It is “inexcusable that our security agents, our frontline agents, that are essential to what we do, are not being paid. And it’s ridiculous to see them being used as political chips,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian told CNBC.
“We’re outraged,” Bastian added.
Should the U.S return to a private airport security model?
Twenty airports—including San Francisco International Airport (SFO)—were unaffected by the shutdown. That’s because they are part of TSA’s Screening Partnership Program, which allows them to use private contractors instead of federal workers to screen travelers. Those private contractors continued to get their paychecks and thus showed up for work throughout the shutdowns.
Harteveldt said there have been ongoing discussions about moving toward this model.
“This doesn’t mean doing away with TSA. What it means is contracting with private-sector providers, as SFO does, to operate the security-screening checkpoints. TSA remains as an agency, but its focus becomes more strategic,” he said.
Importantly, TSA would continue to set screening standards, enforce adherence to them, and oversee airport security operations. The privatization of airport security screening, Harteveldt said, means the traveling public wouldn’t be subject to the federal government’s budgetary “‘sausage making’ and drama when funding disputes occur. I think this is worth considering.”
Critics, Harteveldt said, may point to airports’ use of private security when 9/11 happened, “but that was different, because there was no federal agency like TSA establishing security screening standards, and the security screening process was much more lax.”
The larger security risk during shutdowns
Besides the inconvenience, these extended shutdowns can negatively affect traveler safety. A union representing flight attendants was especially vocal the past few weeks about the potential for security lapses during the chaos. Besides concerns that screening accuracy might suffer, the long lines created new concerns, Harteveldt said.
“The long lines we saw at airports, especially those that stretched outside terminal buildings, absolutely created safety risks for the people in them,” he said. “While the area behind security is fairly safe, the areas in the front of terminal buildings, especially sidewalk areas, are considered ‘soft targets.’ The people there—again, especially anyone outside a building—are especially vulnerable to anyone who would choose to attack the airport. We’re extremely lucky that hasn’t happened.”
For now, it seems the worst may be behind us in terms of unprecedented security lines at many U.S. airports. But many challenges remain for U.S. air travel, including the overall stability of the TSA workforce.
