March 9 (UPI) — Travelers are experiencing long lines at airport and land crossing TSA checkpoints as a partial government shutdown begins to take its toll right at Spring Break.
The Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Transportation Security Administration, is shut down because Congress couldn’t agree on a funding package for the department. Democrats don’t want to fund it until some guardrails are put on the agency, and Republicans haven’t agreed to Democrats’ demands.
As a result, TSA workers got a partial paycheck on Feb. 28 and will miss their first full check on March 14. Some workers have taken time off while not getting paid, which slows down the TSA lines at major airports.
On Feb. 21, DHS announced it would suspend TSA Precheck, the service that allows low-risk travelers to speed through the checkpoint, but reversed course after an outcry. Global entry, which allows American citizens to move through customs quickly, is closed.
Some airports, like Houston’s William P. Hobby airport and Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport have seen lines that take hours to get through.
On Sunday afternoon, Hobby Airport averaged about three and a half hours, USA Today reported.
New Orleans officials told travelers to plan ahead.
“TSA is experiencing a shortage of workers at the security checkpoint, which is causing longer-than-average lines,” the airport said on X.
Charlotte Douglass International and George Bush Intercontinental in Houston also reported long lines over the weekend. Photos show Bush Airport had security lines that stretched outside the airport onto the sidewalk in the arrivals area, CNN reported.
“This chaos is a direct result of Democrats and their refusal to fund DHS,” DHS spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement. “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.”
Spring Break travel brings extra congestion.
“The shutdown is having very real consequences, and hardworking federal aviation workers, the airline industry and our passengers are being used as a political football once again. This is simply unacceptable and un-American,” Chris Sununu, president and CEO of Airlines for America, said in a statement. “Congress and the administration must act with urgency to reach a deal that reopens DHS and ends this shutdown.”
On Thursday, President Donald Trump ousted DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and replaced her with Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla.