Airport bottlenecks ease as TSA workers get paid

After weeks of chaos in U.S. airports, the Transportation Safety Administration said Monday that most of its officers received much of their back pay Monday for working during the shutdown.

Weary travelers hope the overdue paychecks will lead to the end of the hours-ong security lines travelers experienced at several major U.S. airports in recent weeks.

Wait times at some TSA security bottlenecks, such as the airport checkpoints in Atlanta and Houston, already had improved significantly Monday morning.

But how long it will take for long security lines to consistently return to normal — and how long federal immigration officers will maintain a visible presence in airport terminals — remain unknown as the busy spring break travel season continues.

“Working without pay forced more than 500 officers to leave TSA, and thousands were forced to call out,” said acting TSA Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis.

The Department of Homeland Security shutdown resulted in not only travel delays but also warnings of airport closures as TSA workers missing paychecks stopped going to work. Those workers were just recovering financially from last fall’s extended government shutdown.

Wait times still pushed beyond two hours at New York’s LaGuardia Airport Monday morning. Baltimore-Washington International Airport had minimal wait times Monday morning, but continued to advise travelers to arrive three hours before their scheduled departure.

President Donald Trump on Friday ordered DHS to pay TSA officers immediately to ease the lines plaguing airports. The move came after Trump rejected bipartisan congressional efforts to fund the TSA while negotiations continue with Democrats, who have refused to approve more funding without restraints on Trump’s immigration enforcement and mass deportation operations.

Democrats are demanding better identification for DHS officers, judicial warrants in some cases and for agents to refrain from conducting raids around schools, churches or other sensitive places. Republicans and the White House have been willing to negotiate on some points, but the sides have yet to reach a final agreement.

On Monday, there were few signs of progress on Capitol Hill, where the Senate held a short session without considering the House bill and resumed its two-week break. GOP Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota said afterward that Senate Republicans are talking with Democrats and also the House as they try to find a way to fund DHS.

TSA employees had gone without pay since DHS funding lapsed in February. The department’s shutdown reached 44 days Sunday, eclipsing the record 43-day shutdown last fall that affected all of the federal government.

Multiple airports experienced greater than 40% callout rates, and nearly 500 of the agency’s nearly 50,000 transportation security officers quit during the shutdown.

Trump deployed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to some airports a week ago to help with security as TSA callouts rose nationwide. How long they stay, White House border czar Tom Homan said, depends on how quickly TSA employees return to work. A TSA statement said the agency “has immediately begun the process of paying its workforce,” with paychecks arriving “as early as Monday.”

The overall absentee rate among TSA officers scheduled to work dipped slightly Sunday, according to DHS. The highest were concentrated at major airports that have seen consistently elevated absences lately.

Those included BWI, both of Houston’s main airports; Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans; Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport; and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.