Another busy travel weekend begins as uncertainty looms over TSA workers’ pay

By Emma Tucker, CNN

(CNN) — A particularly busy spring break travel weekend has begun, and travelers are bracing for more long lines at airports nationwide even as the Department of Homeland Security has said Transportation Security Administration workers should begin receiving paychecks on Monday after weeks of a partial government shutdown.

President Donald Trump issued a promised memo Friday calling for TSA workers to be paid immediately, but union officials say there is confusion about how the move will roll out. “I think one of the questions from the workforce is, ‘Well, is this temporary, or is TSA fully funded now?’” said Johnny Jones, secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Government Employees’ TSA Council 100.

The DHS shutdown has led to nearly 500 TSA employees quitting and thousands more calling out of work as many struggle to afford gas, child care, food and housing, the agency said. TSA agents have been making dire sacrifices to offset the financial impacts of not being paid over the last several weeks.

TSA staffing shortages have triggered hourslong waits and lines snaking in and out of airports. People waited in line for hours Friday at major airport hubs in cities nationwide, such as Baltimore, Houston, New York and Atlanta.

By early Saturday, the strain was already evident at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, where the security line stretched to more than an hour, according to CNN’s tracker. In New York, lines approached an hour at LaGuardia and hovered just under 50 minutes at John F. Kennedy International.

Here are the latest developments:

• Shutdown likely to continue: House Republicans pushed through their own Department of Homeland Security funding bill Friday night after rejecting a deal passed by the Senate with bipartisan support. The House version is a short-term measure that will extend funding for the entire department for eight weeks. Senate Democrats have already said the House GOP plan will be dead on arrival in their chamber.
• ICE deployed to airports: Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have fanned out this week in 14 airports nationwide to assist with TSA staffing shortages and record-long lines and waits. But they are limited in the duties they can perform, officials said. ICE agents have been verifying travelers’ IDs at some airports, guarding entrances and exits, and helping with logistics and crowd control, DHS said. It’s unclear, however, if ICE agents deployed at Trump’s request have made a significant dent as wait times accumulate.
• Funding TSA won’t fix long lines overnight: Even if the shutdown ends, it could take days or weeks for airport security checkpoints to return to full staffing levels and for the long lines to disappear, union leaders said.
• Busy travel weekend approaches: As airports brace for a busy spring break travel weekend, passengers were met by lines stretching outside the building. “What we are dealing with is 100% of spring break traffic trying to squeeze through 50% or less of our TSA checkpoints, so the math does not work,” Jim Szczesniak, director of aviation for the Houston Airport System, said in an online video.
• TSA workers more optimistic: A TSA union leader is cautiously optimistic recent airport security woes might taper off soon as congressional leaders work toward a solution, he told CNN. TSA officers came into work Friday “in a better mood,” said Atlanta’s TSA union steward George Borek. “I think we’re pointing in the right direction, and I hope we can bring it to the finish line.”

TSA officers make dire sacrifices

TSA workers have told CNN they’re becoming increasingly desperate for financial relief as roughly 61,000 of them anxiously await their paychecks during the six-week congressional stalemate.

Many TSA employees live paycheck to paycheck, making an average of $35,000 a year, according to AFGE.

TSA worker Tatiana Finlay is just one of the workers making sacrifices to make ends meet. She has been forced to borrow gas money from her 15-year-old daughter’s birthday gift fund and ration her own food so her three children can eat.

“I’ve been skipping meals just hoping to stretch that dollar, because I want to make sure that they have the food,” Finlay said.

Rachel, a TSA agent and mother who requested her last name not be shared publicly, described having to leave work to pick up her child and head directly to WIC to get assistance for her family. “I have to go get government assistance from the same government that I work for. And I shouldn’t have to do that,” she said.

TSA officer Jackson Oliver has considered leaving his job, but he stressed he isn’t doing the work just for a paycheck and won’t give up without a fight. He has taken a second job to support his family, as well as managing full-time schooling and flight training while not being paid.

Public and union support during the shutdown has been vital to easing some of the financial and emotional burden for TSA workers, as airports coordinate gift card drives for gas and groceries, food pantries and other donations.

“Donations of gas cards and gift cards — these things are really helping folks get through the day-to-day operations,” Oliver said.

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CNN’s Ryan Young, Chris Youd, Rebekah Riess, Elizabeth Wolfe, Taylor Galgano and Maria Aguilar Prieto contributed to this report.