‘Gonna Get Much Worse’: Transportation Secretary Says More TSA Agents Set To Quit Amid Funding Impasse

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says he believes that lengthy wait times at airports and additional travel issues are set to only get worse, as more TSA agents will either quit their jobs or begin calling out even more if they miss another paycheck later this week. Several airports on Sunday were clocking multi-hour wait times just to get through security.Border Tsar Tom Homan says the Department of Homeland Security will deploy U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to major airports starting Monday.In an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union, Mr. Homan clarified that the deployment is intended to provide operational relief rather than technical screening. ICE agents, he says, will not be operating X-ray machines — tasks requiring specialized TSA training — they will take over “non-significant roles” such as guarding terminal exits and managing security lines.The goal, Mr. Homan says, is to free up remaining TSA personnel to focus entirely on passenger screening to reduce the massive wait times currently plaguing travelers.The shutdown at the DHS began one month ago after Senate Democrats believed withholding funds was their best leverage point in order to make changes at agencies responsible for deportations. So far, no substantive agreements have been made, and lawmakers have made clear that they do not believe they are close to a resolution. On Sunday, Mr. Duffy called on Democrats to allow the DHS funding bill to pass in order to pay TSA agents. Some Senate Republicans have pushed a simple two-week extension of DHS funding so that people can receive paychecks while negotiations around ICE and Border Patrol reforms play out. “If this homeland security funding isn’t resolved, I think you’re gonna see more TSA agents — as we come to Thursday, Friday, Saturday of next week — they’re gonna quit or they’re not gonna show up,” Mr. Duffy told ABC News’s “This Week” on Sunday. He says agents are due to be paid this coming Friday. “A lot of the starting salaries at TSA, they’re right around $50,000, so if you live in one of the big cities of America — LA or New York or Miami — it’s hard for these individuals already to make their ends meet,” the transportation secretary said. “They’re gonna take other jobs to put food on the table and pay their rent, so I do think it’s gonna get much worse.”He says he believes that this week could finally be a breaking point, given how many Americans — specifically students — are planning to travel for spring vacations. “The last thing you want to do with as you travel is to deal with political fights at the airport. Let that stay in Congress, but don’t extract pain out of me and my family as I’m trying to just go to Florida,” he said. Several senators said just this past week that negotiations have borne no fruit as Democrats and the White House horsetrade. In an interview with The Hill on Saturday, Senator Ted Cruz suggested that Republicans should pass a standalone funding bill for all parts of DHS except for ICE and Customs and Border Protection, which could be funded in a simple-majority vote under a different procedure. “What I’ve suggested is that the Democrats have gotten so extreme and unreasonable that I don’t know that they will ever be willing to fund [the] Department of Homeland Security,” Mr. Cruz told the outlet, saying that the reconciliation process would allow Republicans to fund ICE and CBP “relatively quickly.”At some of the largest airports in the country on Sunday, passengers were made to wait for hours on end as they tried to get through security. At Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, wait times on Sunday stretched to more than two hours, according to Fox 5 Atlanta. The airport’s web page that tracks average TSA security wait times is down as of Sunday afternoon. New Orleans’ airport recommended that travelers show up three hours before their scheduled departure time, citing longer wait times. At LaGuardia Airport, one security line stretched all the way back to the parking area.

‘Gonna Get Much Worse’: Transportation Secretary Says More TSA Agents Set To Quit Amid Funding Impasse

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