A few major airports across the country experienced long security lines for several hours on Sunday as unpaid staffers with the Transportation Security Administration called out of work amid the partial government shutdown.
The shutdown has directly affected the Department of Homeland Security and its agencies, including TSA, since Feb. 14.
In Congress, Democrats withheld DHS funding because they didn’t want the money going toward Immigration and Customs Enforcement after the January deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota. Their efforts have strained other DHS agencies in the process, however.
After TSA employees received their last full paycheck last month, there hasn’t been much incentive for them to continue to work amid the shutdown. Their absences are now causing major delays at airports.
At William P. Hobby Airport in Houston, passengers were told to arrive four to five hours before their flights in order to get through the TSA screening process in time. The airport warned that the wait times may exceed three hours.
Passengers at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport had a similarly frustrating experience, having to arrive at least three hours before their flights and waiting up to two hours. The airport reminded passengers of the long wait times on Monday morning.
Both airports attributed the longer-than-normal lines to the partial government shutdown.
There were numerous social media posts on Sunday showing passengers waiting in line to get past security. At certain points, the lines reached all the way to the parking garages.
Republicans and the Trump administration blamed Democrats for causing the airport chaos with their opposition to the DHS funding bill.
In a post on X, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) told customers at the Hobby Airport to “thank a Democrat” for the inconvenience.
A DHS spokesperson also placed blame on Democrats, accusing them of “shamelessly playing politics with national security” by refusing to back the bill that starts paying TSA employees again.
“This chaos is a direct result of Democrats and their refusal to fund DHS. These political stunts force patriotic TSA officers, who protect our skies from serious threats, to work without pay,” spokeswoman Lauren Bis said. “These frontline heroes received only partial paychecks earlier this month and now face their first full missed paycheck, leading to financial hardship, absences, and crippling staffing shortages.”
The Trump administration is pressing Democrats to end the funding stalemate as DHS inches closer toward new leadership.
In an unexpected announcement late last week, President Donald Trump tapped Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) to replace Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Mullin needs to be confirmed by the Senate before he can assume the new role.
Speaking on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt urged the Senate to confirm Mullin “quickly” and pass the DHS funding bill that would end the shutdown.
Travel expert Katy Nastro previously told the Washington Examiner that the partial paychecks would start to strain TSA employees around the third or fourth week of the latest shutdown. It entered its third week on Saturday.
TRAVEL INDUSTRY WARNS OF RISING AIRPORT STRAIN AMID PARTIAL SHUTDOWN
Adding to the chaos at airports but unrelated to the shutdown, a bomb threat prompted Kansas City International Airport to shut down for about two hours on Sunday. All passengers were ordered to evacuate as a precaution.
The bomb threat was ultimately deemed not credible by authorities.
