By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, March 26 (Reuters) – Nearly 500 airport security officers have quit since the start of a partial government shutdown in February and long lines continued to snarl airport traffic around the country, the Homeland Security Department said on Thursday.
The dispute that has forced 50,000 Transportation Security Administration officers to work without pay since mid-February is leading to major strains and the longest lines in the agency’s history, topping four hours in some locations.
TSA reiterated on Wednesday that the agency could be forced to close smaller airports if staffing issues worsened. More than 11% of TSA officers, or 3,120 agents, did not show up for work on Wednesday.
About 30% or more of TSA agents did not show up for work on Wednesday at New York’s JFK, Houston’s two airports, and airports in Baltimore, New Orleans and Atlanta.
Airlines for America CEO Chris Sununu on Thursday again urged Congress to quickly resolve the issue. He warned that even if the U.S. Senate reaches a deal by Friday “you’re still probably looking at a very tough weekend, because it’s not going to get finalized” immediately.
President Donald Trump said he could deploy National Guard troops to airports to address security needs.
Senate Republicans and Democrats continue to debate a proposal that would allow funding to resume for TSA and other Department of Homeland Security agencies.
TSA is grappling with the school spring break travel surge and experiencing about 5% higher travel volume than last year. Absences have spiked to more than 10% in recent days, leading to the hours-long delays to get through security checkpoints at some airports.
Democrats have held up funding for DHS while demanding a change in rules governing its immigration operations, after agents in Minneapolis shot and killed U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Republicans have rejected Democratic proposals to fund TSA while negotiating over reforms for how Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents operate.
Hundreds of U.S. immigration agents and Homeland Security Investigations officers began deploying at 14 U.S. airports on Monday to aid security screening.
Some of those agents are now performing duties like checking IDs using TSA equipment, guarding entrances and exits, assisting with logistics and doing crowd control.
ICE and other law enforcement personnel at DHS are getting paid during the shutdown.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Bill Berkrot)
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