{"id":1486936,"date":"2026-03-10T07:03:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T12:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1486936"},"modified":"2026-03-13T03:13:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T08:13:27","slug":"long-airport-lines-highlight-concerns-about-unpaid-security-officers-in-the-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1486936","title":{"rendered":"Long airport lines highlight concerns about unpaid security officers in the shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON (AP) – The hourslong security lines<\/a> at a handful of U.S. airports this week highlight the potential problems when a government shutdown<\/a> coincides with the busy spring break travel season.<\/p>\n

Houston\u2019s secondary airport weathered the worst problems, with lines consistently lasting over three hours for much of Sunday and Monday. Passengers also had to wait more than an hour to get through security at several other airports, including in New Orleans and Atlanta.<\/p>\n

The surge of millions of travelers as schools take spring breaks would put pressure on even a fully staffed airport system. With the staffing problems that tend to accompany a government shutdown, some airports are are beginning to feel more pressure. Still, most airports have not experienced significantly long security lines.<\/p>\n

The longer Transportation Security Administration officers have to work without pay<\/a> during the partial shutdown<\/a>, the more likely it is that some will miss work as they take on second jobs to pay for necessities like gas and child care and their other bills. Many may still be rebuilding finances after the 43-day shutdown last fall, the longest in history.<\/p>\n

TSA officers still recovering<\/h4>\n

Johnny Jones, secretary-treasurer of the TSA union\u2019s bargaining unit, said workers will miss their first full paychecks this weekend since the shutdown began Feb. 14. He said morale among the workforce \u201chas taken a severe hit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the last 15 months, TSA officers have went through three government shutdowns,\u201d he told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

Jones, who also works as a TSA agent, said it took months for him to financially recover from the 43-day shutdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cI refilled my water buckets and now I\u2019m starting to empty them again. Some people were not so fortunate to be able to refill their water buckets,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Immigration drives funding dispute<\/h4>\n

This current shutdown<\/a> has only affected the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats in Congress refused to fund the department because they objected to its immigration enforcement tactics. Democratic lawmakers have said DHS won\u2019t get funded until new restrictions are placed on federal immigration operations following the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti<\/a> and Renee Good<\/a> in Minneapolis earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The TSA and Homeland Security have consistently blamed Democrats for the long security lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis 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,\u201d said Lauren Bis, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, Department of Homeland Security. \u201cThese 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris Sununu, president and CEO of the Airlines for America trade group, reiterated his plea for Congress to end the shutdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than 2.7 million people cleared through TSA yesterday, but too many had to wait in extraordinarily long\u2014and painfully slow\u2014lines at checkpoints,” Sununu said in a written statement Monday. \u201cIt\u2019s unacceptable to have wait times of 2 or 3 hours. And it\u2019s unacceptable that TSA officers will have $0 in their paychecks this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee rejected the notion that they were to blame for TSA officers going unpaid.<\/p>\n

\u201cFACTS: Democrats introduced a clean bill to fully fund TSA with no conditions. Republicans blocked it,\u201d the Homeland Democrats group said on X.<\/a> \u201cRepublicans would rather disrupt our travel than rein in ICE. It\u2019s shameful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Security delays seem to ease<\/h4>\n

The country’s longest security lines have been reported at the William P. Hobby Airport in Houston, with wait times topping three hours. Video from New Orleans on Sunday showed the security line stretching out of the terminal and across a parking garage as the wait there peaked at 77 minutes.<\/p>\n

The lines at both those airports had eased by Monday afternoon, but Hobby airport was still reporting a two-hour wait for security and officials were urging travelers to get to the airport at least three or four hours ahead of their flights. The wait time in New Orleans was reported at 10 minutes in the late afternoon.<\/p>\n

But more problems could pop up if a security shift is short on screeners when it’s busy.<\/p>\n

Neither the Houston airport authority nor TSA would answer questions Monday about why Hobby airport is so prone to long delays during the shutdown. Hobby is smaller than George Bush Intercontinental Airport, which handles roughly three-quarters of all the passengers passing through Houston. But Hobby still handled nearly 15 million passengers in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON (AP) – The hourslong security lines at a handful of U.S. airports this week highlight the potential problems when a government shutdown coincides with the busy spring break travel season. Houston\u2019s secondary airport weathered the worst problems, with lines consistently lasting over three hours for much of Sunday and Monday. Passengers also had to … Continue reading Long airport lines highlight concerns about unpaid security officers in the shutdown<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2851],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1486936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-state-news-archive"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-06 09:15:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1486936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1486936"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1486936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1487787,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1486936\/revisions\/1487787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1486936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1486936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1486936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}